LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

,||" . .V&V A ^""^Wl/-: 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



DISCOURSE 

ON 

DOMESTIC PIETY 

AND 

FAMILY GOVERNMENT 

IN FOUR PARTS. 



REV. JOHN H. POWER. 



EDITED BY 



REV. B. F. TEFFT, D. D. 



Cincinnati : 



PUBLISHED BY SWORMSTEDT AND POWER, 

FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, AT THE WESTERN BOOK 
CONCERN, CORNER OF MAIN AND EIGHTH STREETS. 



R. P. THOMPSON, PRINTER. 

1851. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, 
BY SWORMSTEDT & POWER, 
In the Clerk's Office for the District Court for the District of Ohio. 



PREFACE. 



At the repeated solicitation of friends, 
whose judgments were respected, the 
following "Discourse" was commenced, 
with a view, simply, of preparing for pub- 
lication a sermon of ordinary length, on 
the subject of domestic piety; but be- 
fore we were aware, it had increased on 
our hands, so as to extend quite beyond 
that limit We had then either to lay 
it aside and dismiss the undertaking 
altogether, or to change its form. For 
a time, we chose the former, and laid the 
whole matter by; till, on the pressing 
renewal of those requests, it was re- 
sumed, and is now given to the reader 
in its present form. 

With this brief explanation, it is com- 
mitted to its fate in the world, accom- 

3 



i 



PREFACE. 



panied with the hope that it may be 
read with candor and care, by all into 
whose hands it may come; and that 
Providence may so direct, that it may 
contribute something to the only object 
had in view in its publication; namely, 
the glory of God, in the well-being and 
salvation of mankind. J. H. P- 
Cincinnati, 0., January, 1851. 



DISCOURSE 

ON 

DOMESTIC PIETY. 
PART I. 

"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose 
you this day whom ye will serve ; whether the gods which 
your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, 
or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell : but 
as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," Joshua 
xxrv, 15. 

The portion of holy Scripture recited 
above, as our motto, suggests alike the 
topics for discussion and arrangement of 
the discourse. A sketch of its history 
can not fail to furnish some items of deep 
interest for thought and reflection. 'And, 
first, it will be seen, that no degree of zeal 
or fidelity, in the performance of a part 
of our duties, can procure exemption from 
the obligations to discharge the whole; 
and that private virtues and personal 



6 



DISCOURSE ON 



excellences can, by no means, atone for 
delinquencies in regard to relative duties 
and public trusts. Some of the incidents 
in the history of Moses are admonitory 
exemplifications of these facts. He was 
the agent, selected by divine Wisdom, to 
deliver the children of Israel from their 
bondage and degradation in Egypt, and 
to conduct them to the possession of the 
promised inheritance — the land of Ca- 
naan. By a train of providences, which 
none but a Being of infinite perfections 
could organize and control, he was admi- 
rably prepared for, and, under the special 
call of God, entered upon this arduous, 
but honorable work. 

By the solemn announcement of the 
Divine message to Pharaoh, repeated re- 
bukes for his infidelity, and a series of 
stupendous miracles, such as the world 
had never witnessed before, he subdued 
the tyrant, rent the yoke of bondage, dis- 
inthralled the oppressed — liberated the 
people of God. But, notwithstanding his 
divinely-attested fidelity in all this work, 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



7 



he was, by the murmurings and rebellion 
of the people at the waters of strife, be- 
trayed into indiscretion of words and ac- 
tion, by which he forfeited the honor and 
privilege of consummating his mission 
by settling Israel in the promised land. 
God said, "Thou shalt not go over to pos- 
sess the land, but shalt die on this side 
Jordan;" and, at the appointed time, 
Moses was called to the summit of Nebo, 
there died, and his Maker buried him, 
doubtless, by the ministry of angels ; and 
his lonely sepulcher remains unknown to 
man to this day — solemn warning to all, 
but especially those to whom are commit- 
ted, in any degree, the interests of others, 
that they should constantly keep the fear 
of God before their eyes, as indispensable 
to the perfecting of his work in their own 
hearts, and performing his work in their 
lives. 

We may see, secondly, how egregiously 
men mistake, in supposing that the pros- 
perity of the Church can hardly survive 
the withdrawal of their aid, and that even 



8 



DISCOURSE ON 



the Divine plans can scarcely be accom- 
plished without their agency. But God 
is not straitened for means or instruments 
to effect the purposes of his providence 
or grace. 

Hence, while Moses was hastening to 
the grave, and his people yet in the wil- 
derness, divine Wisdom was preparing 
his successor ; and when death had gath- 
ered him to his fathers, Joshua was called 
and qualified to take his place before all 
Israel, and to inherit the honor of finish- 
ing the work which was left incomplete 
by his less patient predecessor. Admon- 
ished by the solemnities of the past, and 
fully alive to the interests of the future, 
he commenced the duties of his high trust 
with fear and trembling, but with an 
abiding and unbounded confidence in the 
Divine assistance. 

He marshaled the people to the work, 
divided the waters of the Jordan, led 
them over dry shod, demolished Jericho, 
subdued their enemies, and divided the 
land by lot among the tribes of Israel. 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



9 



As a public character, having accom- 
plished the work assigned him, with un- 
impeachable fidelity to God and to the 
state, and now about to retire from this 
official relation, he assembled "all the 
tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called 
for the elders of Israel, and for their 
heads, and for their judges, and for their 
officers; and they presented themselves 
before God." Here he addressed them; 
and his address comprises an epitome of 
their own history, from the father of 
Abraham, to the hour of their interview ; 
* but, particularly, the providences of God 
toward them, in all the vicissitudes 
through which they had been called to 
pass ; in all of which, Divine chastenings 
marked their rebellion, and Heaven's 
blessings crowned their obedience. 

And with these facts fresh in their mem- 
ory, and these points distinctly stated, he 
appealed to them in the language that 
lies before us: "Choose you this day 
whom you will serve, whether the gods, 
or idols of the antediluvians, or the idols 



10 



DISCOURSE ON 



of the Canaanites in whose land yon 
dwell; or whether yon will serve God, 
yonr divine benefactor, who has not only 
given yon your being, but crowned it with 
so many mercies and blessings." 

And, as every honest and consistent 
man will do, he added to instruction the 
force of example, and distinctly stated 
the present purpose of his own heart, in 
regard to the conduct of his future life : 
"As for me and my house, we will serve 
the Lord." 

This discourse will be divided into sev- 
eral parts ; but, that we may have a gen- * 
eral view of the arrangement before us, 
at once, we here state the particulars that 
will engage attention in the investigation 
of the subject. We inquire, 

L Who constitute our household, or 
family ? And, 

II. "What is implied in "me and my 
house serving the Lord." Consider, 

III. Some of the motives that should 
induce us to serve the Lord with our 
house; or carefully to cultivate, and 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



ii 



CONSTANTLY TO PRACTICE, DOMESTIC PIETY. 

In conclusion, 

IV. An APPEAL TO ALL CONCERNED, WITH 
REGARD TO THE INCALCULABLE CONSEQUEN- 
CES INVOLVED IN THESE TOPICS. And, 

I. As the domestic relations were the 
first, and most specific, ordained of Heav- 
en in regard to man, and human society 
in all ages, so its obligations and duties, 
more than all others, involve the univer- 
sal interests of the human family for time 
and eternity. To understand the force of 
these facts, in relation to the family as a 
whole, it is necessary that we have a dis- 
tinct view of the parts of which it is 
constituted. In prosecuting this inquiry, 
it will be seen that the constituent parts 
of the household include particularly, 

1. The head and governor of the fam- 
ily — the Imsband, the father. He, by the 
organization of human society and Divine 
appointment, stands first, and highest, in 
authority ; and his responsibilities are in 
exact proportion to the distinguished po- 
sition assigned him, by unerring "Wisdom, 



12 



DISCOURSE ON 



in this interesting miniature empire — his 
own beloved domestic charge. And each 
member has a right to look up to him, in 
his elevation, as a living example of all 
that is worthy of imitation, in order to 
render home peaceful, the domestic re- 
lations sacred, life useful and happy, 
death tranquil, and to prepare for heaven, 
as the final home of the whole fami]y. 
This is true of all who sustain this rela- 
tion, in every condition of life. It ap- 
plies, with equal force, to the great, the 
opulent, the learned, the elevated, the re- 
fined, and honorable, as to those in the 
common walks of life — the illiterate, pov- 
erty-stricken, and obscure; as well to 
those who wear the distinctions of office, 
and are clothed with authority to rule, as 
to those who are inferiors, and bound to 
serve or obey ; as well to those who are 
living regardless of the claims of Jesus 
Christ, as to his most devoted disciples. 
No delinquencies, in this exalted relation, 
can possibly absolve from its divinely-or- 
dained obligation. 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



18 



It is lamentably true, however, that 
many who occupy this position in their 
household, either never reflect seriously 
on the importance of the trust they have 
assumed, or attempt to excuse themselves 
from its duties because of the want of 
gifts, experience, time, or something un- 
propitious in their business, or circum- 
stances. But all this — every thing of the 
kind— comes too late. God will not be 
mocked. He has provided for, and au- 
thorized, this relation in human society, 
and has appointed its duties and obliga- 
tions, its comforts and care, its objects 
and interests, for the present and the fu- 
ture world; and those w T ho enter upon 
the relation of husband, and head of a 
family, do, by the appointment of God, 
most deliberately and of choice, assume 
all the responsibilities and duties that he 
has attached to this sacred union. And 
he who makes this choice with any other 
feelings, or views, either dissembles be- 
fore God, or is ignorant of what he is do- 
ing, or has done, and will, most likely, 



14 



DISCOURSE ON 



strew his path through life with sorrows, 
plant his dying pillow with thorns, 
plunge his soul at last into perdition, and 
drag a ruined family with him to the 
same hopeless prison. Let all who sus- 
tain this relation, think of their obliga- 
tions — think of the good or evil they can, 
and will, do, in regard to the highest in- 
terest of their families. Another and not 
less important member of the house- 
hold, is 

2. The governess in the family — the 
wife, the mother. By Divine arrange- 
ment, she stands next, and nearest to the 
husband in regard to authority, dignity, 
and duties ; and so indissoluble are their 
relations, responsibilities, and interest, 
that the infinite Author of their being, 
and the boundless source of all their 
blessings, has pronounced them "one." 

All that has been said, in regard to the 
husband, applies with equal force to the 
wife in her relations to him, to God, and 
to each member of her family. In his 
absence, all the cares and duties pertain- 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



15 



ing to the order, peace, well-being, and 
piety of the household devolve on her; 
and as in the case of the husband in his 
place, so there is no circumstance that 
can release, or absolve, the wife in her 
proper sphere, from those obligations and 
duties, which God has assigned her in the 
domestic charge . She may, indeed, shrink 
from them, and, in her neglect, attempt to 
excuse herself; but, in entering into this 
union, she also voluntarily assumed all 
the responsibilities and cares which God 
has attached to it, in the case of the wife 
and mother. And although she may 
close her eyes against, and succeed to 
some extent in dismissing, those solemn 
truths from her mind, in life, if they do 
not aggravate her anguish in the hour of 
death, they will meet her in the final 
judgment as fearful proof of her delin- 
quency on earth, and her utter unfitness 
for heaven. Let all, therefore, who sus- 
tain this relation, remember the import- 
ance of their position, the dignity of their 
character, the promise of Divine grace, 



16 



DISCOURSE ON 



the power of living faith, and the rewards 
of heavenly glory ; and let them, in the 
name and strength of Him whom they 
are called to serve, meet their obligations 
with firmness, and discharge their duties 
with faithfulness, in sure and certain hope 
of a blessed immortality at the right hand 
of God. But, furthermore, 

3. " Me and my house" includes, in a 
special manner, our children. As par- 
rents, next to the salvation of their own 
souls in heaven, the highest and most im- 
portant trust confided to them, by the 
Almighty, is the well-being and salvation 
of their dear children. 

And as they sustain relations to, and 
have a control over, them which are com- 
mitted to none others, they can, and will, 
exert an influence in their families that 
others can not — an influence that will 
not only affect their interests and happi- 
ness in time, but through all eternity. 
Therefore, God requires of parents, and 
nothing less will meet his claims upon 
them, that they unremittingly exert all 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



17 



this authority and influence for the well- 
being and, especially, the salvation of 
their children. 

Hence the Divine injunction, "Train 
up your children in the nurture and ad- 
monition of the Lord." Parents have 
fearful responsibilities resting upon them, 
in regard to their children, which, it is to 
be feared, are but too little felt or appre- 
ciated by many. How few, compara- 
tively, give evidence that their hearts are 
as deeply penetrated with a sense of the 
worth of the immortal souls of their chil- 
dren, or that they desire, and are laboring 
for, their salvation in heaven, as ardently 
as they desire, and are striving to secure, 
and promote, their comfort and happiness 
in this world ! The children constitute 
an important and interesting portion of 
the household ; and their moral and spir- 
itual interests can not be neglected by 
parents but at the peril of their own eter- 
nal salvation. And this is not all; for 
u me and my house " implies and includes, 

4. AU who are connected or associated 
2 



18 



DISCOURSE ON 



with the family, temporarily in business, 
or othervnse : such as clerks, journeymen, 
apprentices, laborers, and all that are in 
our employment receiving remuneration 
for their services, mingling as boarders, 
in part or in whole, with the domestic 
charge. To this view some, even profess- 
ing godliness, take exceptions, on the 
ground,- that we are not to obtrude oiir 
religion, or religious services, upon others, 
and, especially, those who are not of our 
order, or members of our families perma- 
nently. Others object, that it will inter- 
rupt their business to require attendance 
on, and conformity to, the worship of God 
in their families, by all those in their em- 
ployment; while others try to diminish 
their responsibilities, and circumscribe 
their duties on other grounds, and for 
other reasons, equally frivolous and not 
less offensive to God. 

Heads of families may succeed, by 
these and various other means, in par- 
tially satisfying their conscience, and in 
excusing themselves for the neglect of 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



19 



the solemn duties, and sacred obligations, 
which God has affixed to the position 
in society which they have voluntarily 
assumed by entering upon this relation ; 
but it is self-deception of the most fatal 
character, creating a partial peace that 
will only aggravate the discovery of their 
fearful delinquency, when it may be too 
late to repair, or prevent, the evils inflict- 
ed on themselves and others, both in this 
and the eternal world. 

It is a pernicious error, that, because 
we pay men for their services, and though 
for the time being we take them into our 
families, we are to have no control over, 
concern for, or responsibility about, their 
morals, and the salvation of their immor- 
tal souls. This unchristian view of the 
subject has, no doubt, laid the foundation 
for the final ruin of multitudes of youth, 
and young men, of the most promising 
talents. Such have left the home of their 
childhood, and the restraints and instruc- 
tions of kind parents, and have gone into 
shops, stores, counting-houses, and other 



20 



DISC0UBSE ON 



departments of business, and have be- 
come members of other families, who, 
instead of acting on the principle, with a 
single eye to the Divine glory, " as for me 
and my house" — including all its mem- 
bers, whether permanent or temporary — 
"we will serve the Lord," seem to have 
no higher rule of action than that of ren- 
dering the services of this portion of their 
families most available in dollars and 
cents, without any regard to the honor of 
God in the salvation of their precious 
souls. This, however, is but the com- 
mencement, and forms only a very small 
part, of the evil ; for, not only are such 
persons, at a period of life w T hen restraint, 
care, and advice, are most needed, turned 
loose upon the corrupt tide of circumstan- 
ces, to be, almost certainly, borne away, 
by loss of character, ruin of reputation, 
and recklessness of moral principle, to 
endless perdition, but their example and 
influence can not fail to corrupt the minds 
and morals of, at least, the younger mem- 
bers of the family with whom they asso- 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



21 



ciate, and thereby lay the foundation for 
them to pursue a similar course of folly 
and crime in time, and to endure a cor- 
responding weight of sorrow in eternity. 
But, indeed, it is impossible to observe 
even the form of godliness in our fami- 
lies, much less can we "serve the Lord, 
acceptably, with our house," when our 
clerks, apprentices, and those in our em- 
ploy, are not required to observe and con- 
form to the decent order and decorum, 
that become the worship of God, in the 
domestic circle. 

There are two important facts that, in 
settling this question, can not be too care- 
fully considered. First. God has made it 
the imperative duty of the united heads 
of families to exclude, as far as possible, 
all influences and examples that would 
depreciate the importance, solemnity, or 
dignity of the worship of God in their 
house, or that would, either directly or 
indirectly, vitiate the minds, or morals, 
of any of its members. But these obli- 
gations can never be met, the evils pre- 



22 



DISCOURSE ON 



vented, and the blessings secured, but by 
requiring all connected with the family, 
in business or otherwise, to conform to 
the reasonable requirements of the word 
of God in the worshiping household. 
Secondly. The Author of our being has so 
constituted man, and organized human 
society, that each individual is, immedi- 
ately or remotely, dependent on good 
society for his safety, comfort, and happi- 
ness, as far as circumstances and human 
instrumentalities are concerned; conse- 
quently, each one is bound, by obligations 
as clear and strong as are the interests 
involved, while he is enjoying the protec- 
tions and benefits of a healthy state of 
society, not only not to infringe the rights 
of others, or the best interests of society, 
but to conform in all things, where con- 
science is not violated, to principles which 
will best promote his own and the well- 
being of all others in this and the future 
world. All these high and sacred inter- 
ests are involved in sound domestic piety, 
which can be maintained only by the 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



23 



strict observance of the Divine rule — " as 
for me and my house," as already ex- 
plained, "we will serve the Lord." 

It is not an experiment yet to be settled 
whether men can prosecute lawful busi- 
ness operations on strictly Christian prin- 
ciples. This has been go fully demonstra- 
ted, as to exclude all doubt. And the 
man who engages in a business, which 
conflicts with any moral precept of the 
Bible, or that will not allow him time to, 
or in the regular pursuit of which he can 
not, faithfully worship and serve God, 
with all his house, does it at his peril, and 
fearfully offends against Heaven. If this 
reasonable, Scriptural principle, of serv- 
ing God domestically, were strictly ob- 
served, who can estimate the happy re- 
sults to mankind that would follow in this 
life, and in the world to come ! Each in- 
dividual, whatever may be his age or cir- 
cumstances in life, has to be a member of 
some family, either permanently or tem- 
porarily, and if all heads of households 
were to serve the Lord with their domes- 



24 



DISCOURSE ON 



tic charge, all men would be brought, to 
some extent, under moral and religions 
influence. 

It can not be too deeply inscribed upon 
the heart of every one, that no family can 
disregard the responsibilities of their re- 
lations, and neglect this incalculably-im- 
portant duty of domestic religion, without 
incurring the displeasure of God here ; 
" for the curse of the Lord is in the house 
of the wicked," and the endless curse of 
his violated law hereafter; for "these 
shall go away into everlasting punish- 
ment," in the day of final judgment and 
irrevocable retribution. 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



25 



PART II. 

"For I know Mm, that he will command his children 
and his household after him, and they shall keep the way 
of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord 
may bring- upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of 
him," Genesis xvni, 19. 

II. What is implied by "me ajstd my 

HOUSE SERVING THE LoKD?" 

This is an inquiry of no ordinary char- 
acter. In its full sense, it comprehends 
all that constitutes and belongs to internal 
and experimental, external and practical 
religion, in the members, individually, 
and also in their associated relations, as 
a pious and devoted family. It implies 
the observance of all the ordinances of 
the Gospel — the humble and faithful use 
of all the public and private means of 
grace. The proper authority of the united 
head, and due subordination of all the 
members of the household, must be clearly 
defined, well understood, and steadily 
maintained, as absolutely indispensable 
in this great work. Hence, it devolves 
on parents to take a special supervision 



26 



DISCOURSE ON 



of their families in regard to the interests 
of their souls, by restraining them from 
every thing forbidden in the word of God, 
and that would prevent, or vitiate, the 
proper observance of the means and insti- 
tutions connected with their peace and 
piety on earth, and their salvation in heav- 
en. Also, to provide the facilities for, 
and as far as their authority and influence 
extend, to secure the attendance of all 
their house on the instituted means of 
religion, according to their capacities and 
conditions in life. And how will parents, 
who make these things second to any 
others in this world, be able to meet the 
fearful consequences of their folly and 
crime in the final judgment? But the 
great work now under consideration is of 
such surpassing importance, as not only 
to justify, but to require a more particular 
examination of its several parts. And, 

First. It implies domestic, or family 
government. This neglected, will render 
all other efforts to serve God, domestic- 
ally, vain and wholly unavailing. Where 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



27 



there is piety such as Heaven approves — 
religion that God will own and honor — 
either in individuals or families, there 
must be order. But where there is no 
regular government in the house, either 
by those to whom authority is confided 
neglecting to use it, or by their using it 
improperly, there can be no order, such 
as the service of God and religion require. 
And who, that has given attention to the 
subject, can suppress the conviction that 
there is a fountain of evil here of most 
fearful magnitude, which is daily sending 
forth its corrupting streams into almost 
every department of human society, both 
civil and religious ? And who is prepared 
to affirm that a great amount of the dis- 
orders abroad in community, the state, 
the nation, if not throughout the world, is 
not traceable, directly or indirectly, to this 
wicked and ruinous source — the neglect 
of order and proper government in the 
domestic charge? How many families 
are there that have no established order 
or rules of government whatever! Each 



28 



DISCOUESE ON 



one, from the father down to the youngest 
member, rules in turn, or rather wields a 
kind of domestic despotism, for the time, 
as the excitement of anger, pride, or some 
other passion, prompts and prevails. But 
this confusion in the family circle is by 
no means the worst feature of the case. 
There are many others, to present which, 
and fully to acquit our conscience before 
God, requires great plainness of discus- 
sion. And, however unpleasant the truth, 
the whole truth may be, and whatever 
exceptions may be taken now to the man- 
ner of exhibiting it, we have no fears 
that any will dare to bring it as a charge 
against us when we meet at the bar of 
final judgment. 

In presenting this subject in its true 
character, the chief embarrassment is the 
fearful amount of evidence in support of 
the fact that there are parents — and O, 
their number who can tell ! — who make no 
ordinary pretensions to piety, but whose 
government, in their family, if it deserves 
the name, is little less than a system of 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



29 



falsehood, fraud, and deception ; which is 
constantly exerting a demoralizing influ- 
ence on the hearts and lives of their chil- 
dren, whom they profess tenderly to love, 
and for whose temporal interests they 
manifest a laudable zeal and diligence. 
When the disorders of an ungoverned 
household irritate and provoke the impa- 
tient and angry feelings of the parents — 
which is always the case, more or less, in 
such families — that excitement becomes 
the principle of action and government, 
for the time being, and displays itself, 
either in precipitate and indiscreet cor- 
rection, the effects of which pass off with 
the occasion, or, which is most generally 
the case, in threats of severity or violence, 
which are never intended to be fulfilled. 
Humiliating as it may be, we will furnish 
a specimen of the folly and falsehood of 
such mistaken, not to say- wicked, parents. 
To restrain their children from wrong, or 
to induce obedience, they will proclaim : 
" I will correct you till there is scarcely 
life left in you " I will break your bones 



80 



DISCOURSE ON 



"I will almost skin you;" or, "Mr. B. 
will cut off your ears;" "He will bleed 
you;" or, "He will take you home with 
him;" with a host of similar declarations. 
What is all this but falsehood ? And how 
soon do children learn it to be such, and 
treat it in like manner ! They soon know 
that these declarations are never to be 
executed, and they soon learn to treat 
with contempt the parents who have so 
grossly abused the authority with which 
God has invested them. And, doubtless, 
seeds of misrule, insubordination, and 
evil are, by these means, sown, that will 
ripen into domestic misery in time, and 
hopeless wailing in eternity ! When these 
excitements subside, and in families where 
they seldom or never occur, there is fre- 
quently a false kindness, and excessive 
indulgence prevailing^ which are little, if 
any, less derogatory to the dignity of par- 
ents, the purity of religion, the peace of 
the family, the salvation of its members, 
and the glory of God, than those evils 
just mentioned. Those parents seem to 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



31 



think that their children are either so 
faultless that they do not require restraint 
or correction, or they are so delicate and 
interesting that neither can be adminis- 
tered. They substitute a practical indif- 
ference to duty and domestic order for 
pious patience, in the midst of confusion — • 
the result of their own delinquency. They 
have virtually yielded the control of their 
charge, and most generally the children 
govern. 

If such parents would have peace and 
order in the house, it must be purchased. 
If they would be obeyed, it must be the 
reward of wages, at least promised, if 
never paid. For example : a child cries ; 
friends and visitors are present ; the peace 
of the house is destroyed ; confusion and 
mortification redden the cheeks of the de- 
linquent parents ; they have lost their influ- 
ence to restrain, and to restore peace and 
order in their household ; the little hero tri- 
umphs and glories in his victory ; the last 
resort of the degraded parents is to effect a 
treaty and purchase a temporary peace. 



32 



DISCOURSE ON 



And the means are as incompatible with 
piety as the principle is on which they pro- 
pose to secure the end. " Now," say they, 
" if you will hush and be good, you shall 
have some money, and may go to Mr. D.'s 
shop and buy candy or, " I will give you 
some sugar," "Buy you another toy," or, 
" You may go to Mr. G.'s, and see them." 
"When services are required, a similar 
process must be resorted to. But are these 
promises made with solemn reference to 
truth, and an honest purpose to perform 
them? Their subsequent conduct will 
furnish the answer. "When reminded of 
their promises by the children, they affect 
to have forgotten them; insist that the 
claimant is mistaken — is crazy, and does 
not know what it is talking about ! All 
this — and happy the parent who can plead 
not guilty — is but a species of hypocrisy 
and fraud. It commences with falsehood 
and a design to deceive. It is to make 
promises never to be redeemed ; to excite 
hopes not to be realized, expectations only 
to be disappointed. The minor members, 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



33 



thus deceived, mortified, and provoked, 
soon begin to imitate those examples, and 
lessons of dissimulation and deception; 
supposing, no doubt, that if the parents 
can set the examples, it will be no great 
evil for the children to follow them. 

Another branch of this evil is seen in 
the conduct of those parents who, alike re- 
gardless of their own dignity and duties, 
the safety and well-being of their children, 
the order and peace of other families, 
will send their children, or allow them to 
go to the streets, the fields, or their neigh- 
bors', just to get rid of their noise and 
trouble at home. Who can estimate the 
criminality of such parents, whose imper- 
ative duty it is to teach their offspring to 
love and practice truth, honesty, virtue, 
and holiness, as the only means of happi- 
ness here and salvation in heaven; thus 
corrupting the minds and morals of their 
dear children, by those unpardonable 
practices, which tend, inevitably, to dis- 
grace on earth, and to perdition in hell ? or, 
what apology can be offered for such gross 



34 



DISCOURSE ON 



parental delinquency? O, deluded par 
ents, yon are purchasing temporary release 
from domestic cares, at a fearful price ! It 
will cost you a good conscience, the favor 
of God, and heaven itself; and the bitter 
pains of the second death will be the 
wages of such wickedness, unless speedy 
repentance and thorough reformation avert 
the justly-merited and long-provoked ca- 
lamity. 

Some, from false refinement, or mistaken 
views of a pastor's responsibilities, and 
others, for self-defense and justification, 
object, "that it is descending from the 
dignity of ministerial character and call- 
ing, to notice these little tilings P Indeed ! 
And it will be well if the light of eternity 
does not reveal the awful fact, that pro- 
fessed ministers of Christ have been de- 
terred, by this cry of "little things," from 
declaring, fully, the whole counsel of God, 
and have left popular sins unreproved, ru- 
inous vices unreformed, prevalent evils un- 
rebuked, and, consequently, souls forever 
lost, and their blood be found in the 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



85 



watchman's skirts. O, my Master, wake 
up the messengers of thy mercy and truth 
to an abiding sense of the fearful respon- 
sibilities of their high calling ! 

But who that is candid and competent 
to judge, has pronounced those delinquen- 
cies and disorders "little things?" Has 
God? Verily, he has not. "Witness his 
withering rebukes of Eli, the priest of 
his own altar, and mark the unexampled 
judgments that followed the delinquency. 
And, furthermore : who will dare to call 
them "little things," if we look at their 
consequences ? From these domestic an- 
archies are sent forth more than half the 
woes that curse an apostate race. Look 
upon neglected childhood and youth in the 
streets, alleys, lanes, and neighborhoods, 
and their almost infant tongues, that can 
scarcely lisp distinctly the names of their 
guilty parents, are uttering blasphemy 
against the name of God ; the feet, that 
are scarcely able to bear the slender frame, 
are, unrestrained, entering upon the broad 
way of Sabbath desecration, vice, corrup- 



36 



DISCOURSE ON 



tion, and death ; the hands, that have not 
yet learned their appropriate work, are 
employed in miniature burglary, pilfering, 
and crime. And all this is but the "be- 
ginning of sorrow." Behold the thou- 
sands of the youth in the country, the 
villages, the towns, and cities of our land, 
and witness the fearful advances they 
have made in vice; their disregard of 
moral restraint, their haughty contempt 
of sacred things, their annoyance of wor- 
shiping assemblies in the house of God ; 
and could we follow them in their nightly 
revelings, and their visits to those scenes 
and sinks of iniquity that almost deter 
the villain grown gray in vice, the heart 
would sicken at the sight, and exclaim: 
"Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no 
physician there ?" Are these little things ? 
Are they unworthy the notice of the 
friend of his race — the minister of Jesus 
Christ — the faithful man of God? But 
this is not all. From the ranks of these 
juvenile offenders is furnished a class of 
a higher grade in crime ; who disregard 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



37 



law and order, both human and divine — 
the gambler, the counterfeiter, the swin- 
dler, the thief, the robber, the murderer ; 
and still more corrupt, the adulterer and 
seducer — the worst offenders that are out 
of the lake that burns with quenchless 
fire. Those fruits are seen, and their 
deadly influence felt by community, in 
the utter contempt of all authority, the 
violence of mobs, with which we have 
been cursed, and the nation disgraced in 
the eyes of the civilized world for the last 
few years . From these graduates in crime 
are supplied most of the ruined inmates 
of the hospitals, poor-houses, and peniten- 
tiaries; as, also, the subjects of insulted, 
indignant law and justice, for public exe- 
cution. 

Look at the links in this chain that 
binds the slaves of sin! Mark the steps 
that lead to this fearful precipice, from 
which so many have made the fatal 
plunge ! It commences, generally, in pa- 
rental neglect. Childhood and youth, un- 
controlled and uninstructed, soon become 



38 



DISCOURSE ON 



impatient of all restraint. Home becomes 
a prison. They leave it as long and often 
as possible ; choose their own associates ; 
" evil communications corrupt good man- 
ners ;" they make rapid advancement in 
vice, and speedily ripen for ruin. Parents 
would now restrain; but their authority 
is utterly contemned. They sigh; but it 
is too late. They weep; but their tears 
are unavailing. They implore ; but it is 
disregarded. With clouds and darkness 
overspreading every prospect, they feel 
that they are hastening to the grave in 
sorrow ; and with an accusing conscience 
and a bleeding heart, have to look upon 
the moral and domestic wreck that their 
own negligence has wrought. If death 
terminated these evils with regard to de- 
linquent parents and their ruined off- 
spring, it would, in part, relieve the case. 

"But ah! destruction stops not there; 
Sin kills beyond the tomb;" 

and we must wait the developments of 
the final judgment, fully to estimate the 
magnitude of the guilt, and the amount of 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



89 



misery that its victims are doomed to en- 
dure in the eternal world. And now, do 
any inquire, What must be done to arrest 
this tide of vice, and remedy the destroy- 
ing evils? The following will, to some 
extent, furnish an answer : 

1 . The hearts of parents must he deeply 
penetrated with an abiding conviction that 
God imperatively requires their most ar- 
dent and persevering attention to the order, 
peace, morals, piety, and salvation of their 
chiZdren-^-their whole fetmily. Without 
this interest at heart, domestic duties will 
either be neglected, and home will assume 
the gloomy aspect of a prison, or they 
will become oppressive, and life itself a 
burden. But with this heart-stirring affec- 
tion for the family, and inspired with the 
hope of their happiness and well-being in 
time, and their salvation in heaven, life's 
heaviest burdens will be borne with pa- 
tience and resignation, and its duties per- 
formed with fidelity and delight. 

2. Truth, tmcompromising truth, must 
ha the governing principle in the house- 



40 



DISCOURSE ON 



hold. All evasion and equivocation must 
be avoided, as worse than the deadly- 
poison of the destroying serpent. There 
is no exception to this rule. It can never 
be violated with impunity. The least de- 
parture will be followed by a correspond- 
ing corruption of mind and morals, and, 
unrepented of, will ruin the soul. " All 
liars shall have their part in the lake that 
burns with fire and brimstone." While 
parents scrupulously make truth the gov- 
erning element of their own actions, its 
inestimable importance must be clearly 
explained to, affectionately inculcated on, 
and unconditionally required of, every 
member of the family, at all times, and 
under every circumstance. 

3. The divinely-ordained authority of 
parents, and the corresponding subordina- 
tion of the children, must be fully under- 
stood, and firmly settled, and the will of 
the parents must be the rule of action to 
the whole family. Less than this will 
not only fail to secure the end proposed, 
but must result in domestic confusion. 



DOMESTIC PIETY, 



41 



Hence, there must be harmony, a perfect 
agreement of sentiment and action, on 
the part of parents — the father and the 
mother — in regard to the government of 
their family. "Whatever may be the sac- 
rifice, it must be made, to secnre this 
unanimity of principle and practice ; oth- 
erwise, they will inevitably destroy each 
other's influence, and, most likely, prove 
a ruinous curse to the household whom 
Heaven appointed them to bless. But, 
4. The will of parents, as the rule of 
action to their domestic charge, must 
always he reasonable, awd wisely adapted 
to the age and condition of the several 
members of their family. The greatest 
evils may result from a contrary course. 
Require less than ought to be rendered, 
and time is allowed for idleness — the 
fruitful source of ten thousand vices, that 
terminate in eternal death. If more is 
demanded than is proper, it can not be 
performed, and will discourage. Parents 
must, then, either be cruel, or change their 
requirements. If the former, they will 



42 



DISCOUESE ON 



be objects of dread and disgust; if the 
latter, of disregard and contempt. 

5. Wlien the requisitions are reason- 
able, suited to the capacity and under- 
standing of those whom they are to govern, 
plainly and affectionately presented, in 
the fear of God, then the will of the chil- 
dren must he absolutely subdued to sub- 
mission to this rule. Be not alarmed at 
the term " subdued." It is not too strong. 
There is nothing in it, in this connection, 
cruel, unkind, or oppressive. It implies 
nothing, but what reason, duty, peace, 
love, and God require; and less than 
this can never secure that order, without 
which we never can serve the Lord ac- 
ceptably. "What ! think of a family where 
the members may, or may not, obey the 
will of the parents, just as they choose ; 
and can a scene be imagined, in which 
insubordination and confusion are more 
certain to reign, than in such a family? 
Surely not. The demand being reason- 
able, obedience must be rendered unhesi- 
tatingly ; no delay, no contention ; and if 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



43 



explanations are necessary, let them be 
made after the commands are complied 
with — after the service is performed. 

6. TTiesefew plain, hut comprehensive 
and Scriptural, elementary principles, es- 
sential to domestic order, must he rendered 
familiar to the mind of every member of 
the household. Their importance must 
be impressed upon every heart, till they 
become the controlling principle of action, 
and are scrupulously observed, in all the 
operations of the whole family; especially 
in regard to all angry contentions, provo- 
cation, strifes, and bitterness. All these 
must be unconditionally suppressed and 
prohibited, or they will feed the depravity 
of fallen human nature, destroy the kinder 
sympathies of the heart, alienate the affec- 
tions, ruin domestic peace, and render 
every effort to serve God, with our house, 
little less than mere mockery of sacred 
things. And here allow a word in rela- 
tion to an evil so common in most fami- 
lies that it is scarcely noticed ; and many 
will not readily pardon the faithful min- 



DISCOURSE ON 



ister who dares to give it any attention 
But it is none the less an evil of ruinous ten- 
dency, because of its commonness. We 
mean the evil, not to say sin, on the part 
of parents for allowing it, and the great 
evil to the children which are indulged in 
it, of habitual and unnecessary crying. 
Little importance as is attached to this 
practice, it is fraught with fearful conse- 
quences. It is the fuel that feeds the fires 
of fretfulness, impatience, self-will, and 
rebellion. Would that parents might re- 
flect on this, as more or less connected 
with most of the evils that annoy the 
peace, and imbitter the cup of domestic 
life ! The unrestrained, useless crying of 
the children prepares the way for almost 
every vice. It is the practical indulgence 
of fallen, human nature. It is the child's 
method of exhibiting anger, resentment, 
and stubbornness — of resisting proper re- 
straint, subordination, and government. 
It is the highest degree of selfishness 
and rebellion, and of disregard for the 
peace, happiness, privileges, and rights of 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 45 

others, that the child is capable of. The 
evils of this hateful practice, "growing 
with his growth, and strengthening with 
his strength," soon begin to manifest them- 
selves in other ways, beside mere crying 
and screaming, till all is confusion; for 
the child that has never been taught the 
useful lesson of salutary restraint in this 
matter, soon becomes a youth, that denies 
all right to be restrained in any thing. 
He is ungovernable at home, at school, at 
Church, in business, and every-where else. 
Soon, he contemns parental authority, dis- 
regards human laws, and practically sets 
at defiance the laws and requirements of 
Heaven. Then, the rivulet of self-will 
was allowed to run without restraint; 
now, the stream flows with a boldness that 
defies control, and, most likely, will never 
be arrested till it plunges its victim into 
the lake of endless anguish! And de- 
luded parents may see, in the light of the 
judgment bar of God, that their delin- 
quency, in allowing this evil in their chil- 
dren, has laid the foundation for their 



46 DISCOUKSE ON 

final perdition. Do any inquire, what 
can be done to cure this evil? The an- 
swer is plain. Parents must do their 
duty, their whole duty. The purpose 
must be fixed, that all useless crying 
among the children must cease; that it 
must be done ; there must be no condi- 
tions about it; cease it must. Explain 
the principle clearly and affectionately, 
to all those who are old enough to under- 
stand any thing on the subject, that this 
evil must terminate, and that, in this re- 
spect, there must be peace and order in 
the family. 

Then, in the fear of God, enforce the 
rule, " The will of the parents must gov- 
ern." But, to insure success, it must be 
matter of special attention, and unremit- 
tingly persevered in, till the point is gained, 
and the will of the children brought into 
subjection to that of the parents. Then 
it must be the standing order of the house, 
that, whenever this unreasonable annoy- 
ance occurs, it must absolutely be arrested 
instantly, and silenced on the spot. Un- 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 47 

less this is made the invariable rule of the 
family, every other effort will be unavail- 
ing ; for though you may partially suc- 
ceed for a time, soon all will again relapse 
into domestic disorder. To compass this 
object requires patience and perseverance, 
and the rod of correction may be indis- 
pensable. This will be repulsive, and 
painful to the feelings; but its neglect 
may, far beyond the reach of all remedy, 
forever pierce the hearts of parents. 

After all, not a few parents affect to 
treat this subject as a trifling matter — too 
little for their particular attention, and 
justify themselves on the ground of a 
want of time. " We have not time," they 
say, "to care about the crying of our chil- 
dren. We have other matters, of more 
importance, to attend to." Other matters 
to attend to! Not time! What! Not 
time to discharge one of the most import- 
ant duties that God requires at your 
hands : to train up your children in his 
fear? Not time to restrain your children 
from an evil that may imbitter your own 



48 



DISCOURSE ON 



cup through life, and finally ruin their 
souls? If you saw your child about to 
put out his eyes, would you not take time 
to prevent him, if possible? But what 
is the loss of those organs, compared with 
that moral and spiritual blindness to which 
this practice, in its final fruits, inevitably 
leads ? If you beheld your children about 
to plunge into the fire, would you not 
rush at all hazards to their rescue? But 
the practice, in which you are daily in- 
dulging them, with the selfishness and 
vices to which it leads, will plunge them 
into the fire of an interminable hell ! O, 
parents, on whom such fearful responsi- 
bilities rest, with regard to your families, 
do not trifle with their interests, your own 
souls, and the claims of God ; but wake 
up to your whole duty, before the hope- 
less wreck of reputation and morals of 
your children arouse you from your fatal 
delusion, to weep over the ruin that your 
folly has wrought, but which your tears 
can never repair. 
But to govern and raise the family, in 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



49 



the fear and service of God, implies much, 
more than to bring the members under 
the reasonable restraints that have been 
named. 

Secondly. They must he educated — 
faithfully instructed, in all things that 
pertain to their deportment and comfort 
at home, their respectability and useful- 
ness in society, their happiness in life, 
their peace in death, and their glory in 
heaven. 

While a full discussion of this subject 
would fill a volume, present circumstances 
will allow only a few passing remarks, in 
this connection. 

1. This education, or training, is do- 
mestic, and thoroughly practical. It be- 
gins at home, belongs to the household, 
and is of daily utility. It includes every 
member, and consists in being taught, 
and reducing the instruction into daily 
practice, that each one, by kindness, care, 
the love of order, and industry, can con- 
tribute something to the general peace, 

prosperity, and happiness, of the family 
4 



50 



DISCOURSE ON 



as a whole. To succeed in this, parents 
must make every effort possible to render 
home — their own home, however humble 
and obscure — comfortable and desirable ; 
yes, the most desirable and happy place 
for the whole family, this side of their 
final resting-place in the paradise of God. 
This does not depend, necessarily, on an 
abundance of means, profusion, and dis- 
play ; but on what is possessed, however 
limited, being adapted to the real, not 
imaginary, wants and comforts of the 
family; plain, neat, and in its proper 
place. But more especially is home ren- 
dered desirable, and even delightful, by 
the sweetness of temper and the spirit of 
kindness that pervade and prevail in the 
household. 

No gifts of nature, or Providence ; no 
attainments in knowledge ; no refinements 
of art, can supply the place of, or atone 
for, the absence of those moral virtues — ■ 
affection and kindness — in the domestic 
circle. Parents should make it matter of 
special prayer to God, that those virtues 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



51 



may so richly abound in their own bosoms, 
that they may be fully enabled, by precept 
and example, to teach the same lesson of 
love to, and diffuse the same spirit through, 
the whole domestic charge. Furthermore, 
the mind must be supplied with appro- 
priate food and nourishment. Hence, it 
is the imperative duty of parents, as well 
for their final salvation as to render home 
pleasant, to furnish their families with 
reading matter of a sound, moral, and 
religious character, suited to their age, 
talents, and enlightened taste; but ex- 
clude novels from your house, as you 
would the poison of serpents, or the angel 
of death! A carefully-selected family 
library, though the want of means may 
limit it to a few small volumes, is an in- 
dispensable part of household instruction, 
comfort, and mental provision. "With the 
knowledge and due observance of those 
principles of domestic happiness, home 
will be, to every member, desirable, inter- 
esting, lovely, delightful. It will be to 
them "sweet home" indeed. 



52 DISCOUESE ON 

It is the absence of this neatness, or- 
der, and sweetness of spirit at home, that 
induces so many children and youth to 
love every other place better than their 
own habitation. The want of proper in- 
struction and suitable reading matter at 
home, leads them to seek entertainment 
and amusements abroad, and soon to de- 
spise home. Woe, to those families who 
neglect these duties and means of domes- 
tic comfort and usefulness, and that expect 
more happiness abroad than at home — 
who look upon home, chiefly, as a place 
of perplexity, toil, and cares : to be dread- 
ed as a kind of prison, that is to be es- 
caped from as long and often as possible : 
a sort of workshop, only to be used to fit 
themselves up to enjoy peace and pleas- 
ure abroad, in the party, the fashionable 
call — in the society and the home of 
others. 

2. But, further, the obligation of par- 
ents, in regard to the education of their 
children, includes the improvement of 
their minds, by the light and influence of 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



53 



sound science and literature, to the full 
extent of means and circumstances, and 
the enlightened taste and capacity of the 
children. It is not easy to conceive of a 
stronger obligation resting upon parents 
than this. They owe it to themselves, for 
the honor of their names transmitted to 
their children ; to community, for the gen- 
eral good of society ; to their children, for 
their well-being and happiness; to God, 
for the honor and glory of his name. And 
nothing less than the most nseful and 
sound, practical education, that they are 
able to procure for their children, will 
acquit the parents, on this subject, at the 
bar of judgment. But where are those 
parents, that have fully discharged their 
duty in this matter? Nat a few are deep- 
ly anxious to adorn the persons of, and 
lay up treasures for, their children on 
earth, who manifest but little concern for 
the improvement of their minds, or their 
fitness for the incorruptible inheritance 
in heaven. If schemes of accumulating 
wealth, by increasing the productiveness 



54 



DISCOURSE ON 



of farms and shops, or by improving the 
quality of their cattle or merchandise, 
are introduced, they are examined with 
interest, and patronized with delight ; but 
when the intellectual culture — the im- 
provement of the minds and morals of 
their immortal offspring is the theme, 
these same persons turn away with indif- 
ference, or repulse it with apparent indig- 
nity. Such parents should go in peniten- 
cy to the throne of mercy, confess their 
sin, and vow perpetual reformation. 

But families may have all the external 
means of comfort : home may be delight- 
ful, and all may love it ; the children may 
be restrained and instructed ; their man- 
ners and minds may be improved ; order 
and peace may be established, and prevail 
in the family circle, in all these respects ; 
and so far is all this from coming up to 
the claims of God upon us, to " serve him 
with our house," that the most that can 
be said, is, that they are only preparatory 
to this great and glorious work ; for, al- 
though we can not serve God acceptably 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



55 



without this domestic peace and order, we 
may observe all this, and still be without 
God, and Gospel hope, in the world. 

Thirdly. Hence the great necessity for 
the icse and faithful observance of all 
the means of grace, instituted for our ben- 
eft and saltation by the Author of our 
being. Of the private means of grace, or 
those religious duties which belong par- 
ticularly to the household, 

1. The injunction of the divine Savior, 
" Enter into thy closet and shut the door, 
and there pray to thy Father, who seeth in 
secret, and he will reward thee openly" 
must be scrupulously regarded, and faith- 
fully practiced, as an indispensable duty. 
Parents can never acquire the grace of 
wisdom, hope, patience, perseverance, 
love, and long-suffering, necessary to 
qualify them to meet and sustain their 
high responsibilities, who habitually shun 
the closet, and neglect secret prayer. But 
if faithful in communing with God, in 
this sacred duty, they will not only realize 
the promised blessing in their own hearts, 



56 



DISCOURSE ON 



but be invested with strength and influ- 
ence effectually to recommend the same 
to their families. They will assuredly 
obtain help from Heaven, in the perform- 
ance of their interesting and arduous 
duties; and what appeared painful, or 
impossible, when viewed from a distance, 
will prove to be cheering and delightful 
when reduced into practice. It is not a 
question yet to be solved whether children 
can be early taught lessons of prayer and 
piety to God. The experience of unnum- 
bered multitudes is a standing record of 
the glorious truth. And what thought 
can be more delightful to the pious, or 
what sight more pleasing to Heaven, than 
that of each member of the godly family, 
from lisping infancy to venerable age, 
breathing from the closet their devotions 
to God? In the fervent conferences of the 
soul with God through faith in Jesus 
Christ, in the retirement of the closet, the 
heart is prepared for his holy worship at 
the domestic altar. 

2. And it should be engraven upon 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



57 



every heart, that, regular family prayer, as 
a private means of grace, is absolutely 
indispensable, if we would serve the Lord 
acceptably, with our household. This part 
of family religion is of so much import- 
ance, and yet so much neglected, or at- 
tended to so defectively, that it requires 
particular attention. The neglect of this 
duty will vitiate all we may or can do to' 
render an offering to God that will be 
pleasing in his sight. What will our pro- 
fession of religion, our respectability as 
members of the Church, our attendance 
at the house of worship, our liberality to 
his cause, our charity for the poor, and 
all our professed zeal avail us before God, 
while living in the habitual and willful 
neglect of a plain Scriptural duty, which 
lies at the very foundation of honesty in 
ourselves, justice to our families, and ac- 
ceptable obedience to God ? He has com- 
mitted to parents, above all others, a 
talent of influence and authority over 
their children, for their good and his glory ; 
and if they neglect or refuse to use it for 



58 



DISCOURSE ON 



that purpose, they are dishonestly burying 
or misusing the Lord's gifts, unjustly with- 
holding from their families what should 
be employed for their benefit, and can 
but be offensive to God. O, parents, to 
whom is confided the high and sacred 
trust of training your children, by Divine 
assistance, for a place in heaven, how 
can you, who neglect the plain duty of 
regularly worshiping God in your fami- 
lies, meet them and your offended Maker 
in peace, at the bar of final decision ? 

But there are those who do not wholly 
neglect this duty, and yet attend to it so 
irregularly and inconsistently, that such 
service can never meet the Divine favor. 
They easily allow business, company, wea- 
riness, want of disposition, and a hundred 
other trifles, to keep them from the altar 
of domestic devotion. "When this is not 
the case, and they attempt to attend to 
this service, it is little less than trifling 
with sacred things. In the morning, if 
worship is attended at all, it is in the ab- 
sence of a part, and often most of the 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



59 



family. Some are sent on business, oth- 
ers are yet asleep, and others are at their 
plays and amusements. In the evening, 
it is no better. Some of the children are 
absent, the parents know not where. 
They are out on their evening ramblings ; 
most likely, in idle and corrupt company, 
taking lessons in vice and the road to 
ruin. Others have retired to rest, or by 
drowsiness are unfitted for religious du- 
ties. Where such irregularities prevail, 
if all should happen to be present, there 
is but little of real devotion in their exer- 
cises ; they have scarcely the form, and 
are destitute of the power of godliness. 
The household have not been taught to 
think, and feel, that this is a season of 
solemn and delightful service ; that they 
are in the presence of a heart-searching 
Lord, and that each member of the family 
has a deep interest in the worship of God 
in the domestic circle. But we forbear to 
enlarge upon these irregularities, leaving 
all concerned to reflect on them as a means 
of reformation, while we direct particular 



60 



DISCOURSE ON 



attention to some points, the observance 
of which is indispensable to a faithful 
performance of parental Christian duty, 
under this head. And, 

(1.) It should be the standing ride of 
the house, that, if possible, every member 
must be present at family worship, even 
to the youngest, as soon as they are capable 
of observing surrounding scenes, and the 
order of the family at the hour of prayer. 
Heads of families can never " serve the 
Lord with their house," till this principle 
is fully established. In its neglect, they 
will have disorder and confusion. In the 
observance of it, their children will early 
learn the important lesson of cheerful 
submission to parental authority ; will ac- 
quire habits of conformity to religious 
order, and the worship of God ; will im- 
bibe the spirit of devotion, and grow up 
under the influence of godliness and the 
appointed means of grace. To secure 
this, the time of prayer must be suited to 
the business and circumstances of the 
family. In the morning, either before 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



61 



engaging in the business, or immediately 
before breakfast. The latter, generally, 
may be the more convenient time. We 
never could see the propriety of deferring 
worship in the family till after breakfast. 
Go to the throne of heavenly grace for spir- 
itual food, before you supply the body with 
temporal refreshments. In the evening, 
the time for worship must be such that all 
the family can be present and participate 
in the services. 

(2.) Family worship must he a season 
of instruction and edification; otherwise, 
the time is lost. We do but mock our 
Maker, and our reason both, in keeping 
up the mere forms of religion, either in 
our families or elsewhere, if w r e are nei- 
ther made wiser nor better. But, to be 
instructed and benefited, the reading of 
the holy Scriptures must constitute a part 
of the devotions of the family. This is 
our infallible teacher. This is the uner- 
ring rule of faith and practice. Here we 
learn the character of that glorious Being 
whom we worship, and the extent of his 



62 



DISCOURSE ON 



claims upon us and ours. Here we see 
our wants and weaknesses ; the dangers to 
which we are exposed, and how to escape 
them; the promises of God, and how to 
lay hold on them by faith. In a word, 
the Bible is God talking with his crea- 
tures, showing them what to shun, and 
what to do; and teaching them, with 
more than a parent's care, the living way 
from the cross to the crown — from earth 
to glory. 

The inquiry may well be made, How 
can the reading of the word of God be 
rendered most interesting and profitable, 
as a part of family worship? In answer 
to this question, a few suggestions are 
submitted, which, it is to be hoped, will 
neither be despised nor neglected, on ac- 
count of their plainness. Let all who 
compose the household be furnished with 
a copy of the holy Scriptures, and unite 
in reading, one or more verses at a time, 
from the parent, who conducts, to the 
youngest member that unites in the de- 
votions of the family. Furthermore, it 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



63 



should be perfectly understood that while 
reading, or after the lesson is closed, any 
member of the family may ask the par- 
ents questions or explanations on any 
point that may present itself to the mind, 
in the lesson read. Again : the parents 
leading in these delightful exercises, should 
frequently give such brief comments and 
explanations, on those lessons of holy 
truth and teaching, as they may be able 
to do. And, beyond all doubt, if they 
live as near to God as it is their privilege 
and duty to do, and exercise faith in the 
Divine promise, " If any lack wisdom, let 
him ask of God, who giveth liberally to 
all men [who ask believingly] and up- 
braideth not," they will be enabled, on 
all suitable occasions, to impart some 
useful instructions to their interesting 
charge — their household Church. 

In connection with reading the word of 
God, to enlighten the mind, singing his 
praise, to soften and soothe the heart, 
should constitute a stated part of family 
worship. Sacred music should be care- 



64 



DISCOURSE ON 



fully cultivated, and all the members 
should be taught, and required, to unite 
in singing the praise of God, in the devo- 
tions of the family. And, although they 
may not always be able to sing according 
to the rules and technicalities of the 
science, and there may and will be young 
and inexperienced voices, jarring notes, 
and discordant sounds, these will neither 
vitiate the devotions, close the ears of the 
Savior, nor restrain the descent of the 
promised blessing. If this delightful and 
pious exercise were fostered into that ma- 
turity of which it is capable, in religious 
families, it would soon relieve the Churches 
of the inconsistency and trouble of prais- 
ing God by proxy, through the agency of 
a few select, and often hired, singers, who 
praise the Lord for pay. Each household 
would then be God's choir, at home ; and 
when such families came together for 
public worship, they would fill his sanc- 
tuary with living praise, that would move 
and melt the heart of the Church on 
earth, and gladden the heart of the 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



65 



Church in heaven. But, furthermore, 
the worship of God in the family should 
be, 

(3.) A season of special spiritual bene- 
fit, and communion with the Father of 
our spirits. To secure access to the throne 
of heavenly blessings, and enjoy this holy 
communion, our petitions must be pre- 
sented to God through faith in the ex- 
haustless merits and prevailing mediation 
of Jesus Christ, with the deepest rever- 
ence and earnestness of soul that grace 
can enable us to command. Parents 
must feel that, with their families, they 
are in the presence of the Searcher of all 
hearts, and the Judge of all men; that 
they are transacting business of surpass- 
ing interest for eternity: to be repulsed 
is to be hopelessly undone; to succeed 
will secure grace to sustain in all the toils 
and trials of time, and to bring them, 
finally, home to heaven, and crown them, 
as families, in the presence, and with the 
glory of God. But that these devotions 
in the family may always be interesting, 



66 



DISCOURSE ON 



solemn, profitable, spiritual, and lead the 
soul into sweet communion and fellowship 
with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus 
Christ, through the influence of the Holy 
Spirit, they should, generally, be short. 
After reading a portion of the holy Scrip- 
tures, with due solemnity and reflection, 
and singing, with the spirit and with the 
understanding, a few verses of an appro- 
priate hymn, then from four to six min- 
utes spent in fervently, through the power 
of living faith, breathing the whole de- 
sires of the full soul to God in prayer, 
according to the spiritual necessities and 
circumstances of the household, will con- 
stitute an offering at the domestic altar 
that will never be a wearisome task to 
those who lead the devotions — that will 
never lose its interest with the family that 
worship — an offering that God will never 
turn away without his blessings, and the 
consolations of his heavenly grace, 

(4.) That domestic piety may be thor- 
oughly cultivated^ and the means of grace 
rendered effectual in the salvation of the 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



67 



household, parents should frequently call 
on the several members who are penitent 
or pious, to lead in prayer in the devotions 
of the family. And it can not fail greatly 
to promote their spiritual interests to hold 
occasionally, say monthly, or oftener, 
family prayer meetings, in which each 
pious member, that is of sufficient age, 
should, in turn, address the throne and 
mercy-seat of God. The parents gener- 
ally should lead in these delightful exer- 
cises, and the children follow; mingling 
appropriate singing with their humble 
supplications. O, what blessings of heav- 
enly grace have crowned those unosten- 
tatious services in the godly family ! And 
who that has united in them has not found 
and felt the Lord present, and precious 
to his soul? 

To render the morning and evening 
devotions acceptable to God, and inter- 
esting and edifying to the family, the 
members of the household, at the ap- 
pointed time, must be convened, and all 
things pertaining to the solemn services 



68 



DISCOURSE ON 



in perfect order. This duty, and the re- 
ward promised to fidelity in its perform- 
ance, is, by Providence, peculiarly as- 
signed to the mother — the governess of 
the household. Doubtless, negligence in 
her department has first embarrassed 
and deranged, then paralyzed, and finally 
banished the devotions of the domestic 
altar. The head of the family comes in at 
night care-worn and weary — perplexed — 
disappointed in business of some kind. 
It has been a day in which every thing 
appears to have "gone wrong." He has 
but little of the spirit of devotion. He 
finds derangement at home — the books 
displaced, and the family scattered. And 
with his present feelings, to get all in 
order for acceptable devotion, appears a 
hopeless case. It has been a day of 
great trial. The enemy has made an 
assault to discourage and drive him from 
the means of grace, and from the cross of 
Christ. The derangement of his house 
is the crisis. He reasons, hesitates, excu- 
ses himself in the circumstances, yields, 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



69 



retires without prayer, and the devil tri- 
umphs. The next conflict is sustained 
with less firmness, on his part, and with 
more on the part of the foe, till the devo- 
tions in the family become irregular, de- 
preciate to a mere form, lose their inter- 
est, become a burden, and are finally 
abandoned. 

But if the governess had put her house 
in order for the evening devotions, the 
books in their place, the lights brightly 
burning, the family all present and wait- 
ing to read the holy Scriptures, and join 
in praise and prayer, the whole scene 
would have been reversed. The circum- 
stances would have pressed the father to 
the cross; the fires of devotion would 
have been kindled in his bosom; the 
snare would have been broken; the soul 
would have escaped ; the foe would have 
been foiled, and God glorified. As facts 
powerfully illustrate principles, allow an 
incident of the kind here : 

Some time since, when we were urging 
this subject on the attention of a congre- 



70 



DISCOURSE ON 



gation, there was a little boy, some ten 
years old, present, the only one of the 
family that was at Church on that occa- 
sion. His father's house had once been 
a house of prayer and piety, but both 
had long been abandoned, and the parents 
were fearfully fallen. He listened with 
much interest, and returned home deeply 
impressed with what had been said con- 
cerning a mother's duty in arranging the 
household for family worship. In the 
evening, when some began to prepare for 
retiring to rest, the little boy modestly 
approached his mother, and, in a tremu- 
lous and suppressed tone, addressed her : 
" Mother, to-day the preacher said that if, 
before we go to bed to-night, you would 
set out the stand, with the candle, Bible, 
and hymn-book on it, and all of us chil- 
dren sit down and be still, father would 
read, sing, and pray with us. Mother, 
will you do it?" The mother, rather sur- 
prised, replied, "Why, child, what are 
you talking about? ain't you crazy?" 
•'No, mother; indeed I understood the 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



71 



preacher to say it." " Go off, child ; you 
are beside yourself." The little mission- 
ary, much mortified, but not wholly dis- 
couraged^ meekly answered, "I know, 
mother, the minister said so ; but if you 
will not do it I will, and see if father will 
pray." He then made the arrangements 
as above, and approached his father, who 
had not observed what had occurred, and 
repeated to him what he had stated to his 
mother concerning the sermon, and added, 
" I told mother, but she would not do it ; 
I then told her that I would. Now, 
father, will you pray?" All was silent 
and solemn; but the child earnestly re- 
peated, "Say, father, will you?" These 
were circumstances, and this was an ap- 
peal, attended by the influence of the 
Spirit, that a fallen father could not resist. 
He wept; his heart melted; his con- 
science smote him, and he exclaimed, 
"Yes, child, God helping me, I will try 
to pray!" God heard his prayer; soon 
reclaimed him and his wife; converted 
nis children, and poured the influences 



72 



DISCOTJKSE ON 



of the Holy Spirit and his heavenly peace 
upon the household. 

Again : on a subsequent occasion, while 
enforcing the importance of family wor- 
ship, and female influence in promoting 
it, a mother in the congregation, who had 
been a member of the Church for several 
years — whose husband, a respectable phy- 
sician, was unconverted, and, apparently, 
unconcerned about the salvation of his 
soul — heard > felt, and resolved to establish 
worship in her family. She determined 
to put her house in order, and ask the 
doctor to pray, and if he declined, that 
she would bear the cross herself. Ac- 
cordingly, in the evening, she placed the 
books on the table ; seated the children ; 
had all things in readiness, and then 
affectionately requested her husband to 
pray with the family before they retired 
to rest, modestly reminding him of the 
great responsibilities that rested upon 
them, as parents, and the fearful thought 
of meeting their children in eternity, 
without teaching them, by example, to 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



73 



worship God. This reached his heart, 
but he excused himself on the ground of 
his unworthiness, and want of experience 
in the duty of prayer. She then kindly 
solicited him to read a portion of the holy 
Scriptures, and added, that she would try 
and pray. This was so reasonable that 
he could not decline her request. He 
read ; the Holy Spirit increased his con- 
victions; he felt his responsibilities, and 
the burden of his sins. The lesson read, 
all kneeled before the Lord ; immediately 
he commenced pleading for mercy; he 
prayed ; his wife prayed ; it was a night 
of prayer and supplication in the family, 
j^ext morning he united with the children 
of God, and in a few days the Lord con- 
verted him, and for years he has been a 
devoted Christian — a useful member of 
the Church, and his house has been a 
house of prayer. 

The influence of mothers in promoting 
piety in their families is almost resistless. 
God has given them a moral control 
there, that he has not intrusted even to 



74 



DISCOURSE ON 



angels, and if it is fully brought into 
requisition, and exerted with a single eye 
to his glory, Heaven will assuredly crown 
it with success that will gladden their 
own hearts, bring salvation to their house, 
and increase the joy of angels. But 
alas ! a mother's delinquencies, and negli- 
gence, will imbitter the whole cup of 
domestic life, and even death will not 
terminate the calamity. It is true, indeed, 
that they are not allowed to distinguish 
themselves in the political conflicts and 
strifes of earth; to occupy places in the 
legislative halls, or contend in a nation's 
senate ; yet, though God has given them 
a less prominent position, he has assigned 
them a much nobler work in the world. 

God has given them a kind of pre- 
emption right over the minds and morals 
of our race. As a general fact, the first 
and earliest training and molding of the 
infant and youthful minds are committed 
to the mother's hand ; and the principles 
then implanted, and the impressions there 
made, give character to the future man; 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



75 



and as these lessons are the first learned, 
they are the last forgotten, or, rather, 
they are never fully erased from the 
mind. 

It is for them, by divine grace, to im- 
press the tender intellect and conscience 
of their immortal charge with correct 
views and feelings of due subordination 
to proper authority; to teach them the 
utmost abhorrence of sin; the love and 
practice of order, virtue, and truth; to 
lead them with a steady hand, and in the 
light of a godly example, along the path 
of practical piety to the cross of Jesus 
Christ ; to teach them, in a word, to 
live in time for the glories of eternity. 
The piety, sanctified cheerfulness, and 
smiles of a mother, constitute the cloud- 
less sun of the whole domestic circle ; and 
with this sweet temper and holy frame of 
mind, she is constantly the angel of peace 
to her household ; maintaining order and 
harmony; inspiring and diffusing the 
same spirit of affection and kindness 
through all the members; and by a de- 



76 



DISCOURSE ON 



voted mother's influence fitting them for, 
and leading them up to, the throne of 
heavenly grace and the bliss of endless 
glory. But, 

3. "To serve the Lord with our house" 
implies the stated use of all the public 
means of grace, without which domestic 
piety must he radically defective. God 
has organized his Church — established the 
ministry of his word, the ordinances of 
his house, and all the public institutions 
of religion, for the benefit of man ; and 
he requires those who would enjoy the 
salvation of the Gospel, and be owned by 
him in the judgment, to honor him in 
this world, before men, by a public profes- 
sion of his name, and religion, and a 
public and faithful observance of all the 
institutions of his house. This must be 
done, not by a part of the family occa- 
sionally, or even constantly, but by the 
whole family. All the members of the 
household, that are of sufficient age, must, 
as far as possible, on all proper occasions, 
especially on the holy Sabbath, publicly 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



77 



worship God in iris own house, and honor 
him in the assembly of his saints. This 
is our reasonable service. This God re- 
quires, and less than this he will not 
receive at our hands. But it is both the 
folly and misfortune of fallen men, either 
to deny the claims of God upon them, or, 
if they admit the obligation, to view it as 
a burden, and study to bear as little of 
it as possible, without wholly forfeiting 
their character, instead of esteeming it a 
privilege, and aiming to achieve all they 
possibly can in and for the cause of God. 
There are many painful examples of this 
kind in relation to the duty now under 
consideration. Not a few parents, even 
professing to be pious, if they do not 
deny the obligation publicly to "serve 
the Lord with their house," are almost 
wholly delinquent in regard to its, per- 
formance. When, or where, did you see 
them with their family publicly honoring 
Christ and religion? "When did you see 
that family all together in the house of 
God on the consecrated Sabbath? 



78 



DISCOURSE ON 



As the glory of God, the honor of re- 
ligion, the peace of families, the pros- 
perity of the Church, and the salvation 
of souls are involved in this great public 
duty of Christianity, we can not answer 
it to our conscience, nor to our God, with- 
out, in all plainness, dwelling on it more 
at large. 

(1.) And, possibly, the magnitude of 
this obligation can not be seen with 
greater clearness, nor felt with more pow- 
er, than by contemplating it in contrast 
with existing delinquencies in regard to 
its claims. Go to the house of God, and 
cast your eyes over the assembly, and 
you may there see the head of the fam- 
ily — the husband — the father — from week 
to week, and month after month, regu- 
larly in his place, apparently serving 
God in the observance of the public in- 
« stitutions of religion, with great zeal and 
devotion; but where are his wife and 
children — his household? They are not 
there. After the services close, inquire 
after his family — where they are, and why 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



they are not at Church, and an indication 
of ill health, or some evasive answer is 
all the light yon can elicit from him on 
the subject. But urge the inquiries till 
you reach the facts, and in numerous in- 
stances you will find that the absence of 
the family from the sanctuary of religion, 
on the holy Sabbath, is traceable to the 
delinquency of the governor and head of 
his household. You will find a husband — 
a father — professing godliness, shamefully 
neglecting the highest, the endless inter- 
ests of the wife of his bosom, his dear 
children, and those committed to his 
care. He who should be first to sacrifice 
his own convenience for the well-being of 
his family, and foremost to meet and bear 
domestic cares and responsibilities, to 
promote their salvation, is the first to 
shun and throw ofi" those cares, and 
wholly to monopolize privileges to him- 
self at the sacrifice of justice, honor, and 
the sacred interests of his house. Such 
is this neglect in not a few instances, that 
the wife — the mother — destitute of suita- 



80 



DISCOURSE ON 



ble apparel to attend in the house of 
worship, burdened with the cares and 
toils of the domestic charge, pressed with 
the hand of poverty, is doomed, by a de- 
linquent husband, to a species of perpet- 
ual imprisonment at home, from which 
she can not escape, even for an hour, on 
the Sabbath, to worship God with his 
saints. Does that man " serve the Lord 
with his house?" Is he not supremely 
selfish ? and is not his religion vain ? Cir- 
cumstances may, indeed, be such that all 
can not leave home at once to attend 
Church or elsewhere. Sacrifices have to 
be made ; but in all such cases it is the 
imperative duty, as well as the honorable 
privilege, of the husband — the head of 
the family — fully to share those incon- 
veniences and privations with his wife; 
and to see to it, that she has secured to 
her the full proportion of her religious 
privileges, both at home and in the house 
of God. The man who does not feel as 
deep an interest for the salvation of his 
wife in heaven, and who is not willing to 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



81 



make every sacrifice, and put forth every 
effort for that object that he would for his 
own salvation, slanders the Christian hus- 
band — is not worthy the name of his sex, 
and his religion is more nearly allied to 
barbarism than to the cross of Jesus 
Christ. God has settled the question of 
man in this relation, with a clearness and 
point, that no comment can make plain- 
er: " Husbands, love your wives, even 
as Christ also loved the Church, and 
gave himself for it;" "So ought men to 
love their wives as their own bodies;" 
"Let every one of you in particular so 
love his wife even as himself." This is 
the principle that should glow in the 
heart and live in the bosom of every hon- 
orable man, to say nothing about Chris- 
tianity, and by it men who sustain this 
relation will be judged in eternity. 

(2.) But this ruinous neglect of relative 
duties is not confined to men who have 
taken upon them the relations of heads 
of families; for, in too many instances, 
the scene is reversed, and the professing 



82 



DISCOURSE ON 



wife and mother may be seen with com- 
mendable regularity in the house of 
prayer, with the worshiping assembly, 
but in the constant absence of her family 
from this public means of grace. Is their 
absence the result of negligence? Has 
she done all in her power, as a Christian 
mother, to correct this irregularity and 
reform the evil? In answer, it will be 
found that whatever may be the favorable 
appearances of her piety abroad, at home, 
instead of diffusing the benign influences 
of dignified Christian example through 
the domestic circle, she spends much 
more time in complaining of real or im- 
aginary difficulties, than in prayer for 
grace to overcome them. Much more of 
the spirit of fretfulness is evinced, than 
of meekness and patience. Her conversa- 
tion, frequently, is much more calculated 
to provoke to anger, than to instruct and 
win to Christ. She has a much stronger 
desire to get away from domestic difficul- 
ties than, as far as possible, to diminish 
or remove them by reforming improprie- 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



83 



ties — promoting peace, piety, and happi- 
ness in her household. Hence, she al- 
ways bases her imperative claims to seek 
privileges and enjoy the means of grace 
abroad on her insufferable privations 
at home. And, although, with proper 
attention, on her part, to the interests of 
the family, they might together all attend 
the house of God, she waits with impa- 
tience for the day and hour to arrive, 
when she may break away from all do- 
mestic cares, and hurry off alone to the 
place of religious worship. At home, 
her religion — if it deserves the name — as- 
sumes a complaining, sour, selfish char- 
acter, and whatever may be its influence 
abroad, in her own family it is much 
more calculated to make skeptics in relig- 
ion than converts to the meek and lowly 
Savior. It is not because we derive pleas- 
ure from dwelling on the weaknesses or 
wickedness of any of our race that we 
mention these things, but from an abiding 
sense of duty, and an ardent desire to 
reform delinquencies. 



84 



DISCOUKSE ON 



And in this case, as well as that of the 
husband, we can not suppress the convic- 
tion, that the wife who does not feel the 
same solicitude, and make the same sac- 
rifices and efforts, for the salvation of her 
husband — her household — that she would 
for her own, has yet to learn one of the 
first lessons of Christian duty ; and what- 
ever may be her profession or pretensions 
to piety, she can never honor the cause 
of Christ. As God has opened wide the 
stores of his grace to her faith, and prom- 
ised richly Divine assistance, he requires 
much at her hands with regard to the sal- 
vation of her house. " For what knowest 
thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy 
husband ?" " That if any [husbands] obey 
not the word, they also may, without the 
word, be won by the conversation of the 
wives." 

It would be cause of gratitude, if we 
could here close the list of domestic de- 
linquencies, with regard to the public 
institutions of religion ; but duty compels 
us to direct attention to another, and, if 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



85 



possible, still greater evil than those just 
noticed; namely, 

(3.) The fearful neglect of parents to 
take their children with them, on the holy 
Sabbath, to the house of God. If this 
evil could be fully presented, in all its 
magnitude, it would be perfectly appalling. 
Such parents appear to look no further 
than their own personal convenience, in 
the release, for the time being, from the 
cares of the family. They are regularly 
at Church on the Sabbath, while their 
children, uninstructed and unrestrained, 
as regularly desecrate, and spend the day 
in folly and wickedness. It is difficult to 
conceive of a greater absurdity, or an 
evil more to be deplored, than that of 
professing parents, apparently serving 
God, in his sanctuary on the day of sacred 
rest, and their immortal oflfepring, not 
only not accompanying them, but wholly 
neglected, and, with either their direct or 
implied consent, making the blessed Sab- 
bath a day entirely devoted to sinful 
pleasures. See those neglected children, 



86 



DISCOURSE ON 



from the little, tottering boy on the streets, 
with his marbles, learning to gamble and 
blaspheme, to those farther advanced in 
life, who think themselves almost men 
and women, utterly neglecting the public 
means of grace, and spending the day 
which God has rendered sacred, and con- 
secrated to his own service, in fashionable 
and sinful visiting, unholy amusements, 
shooting, hunting, fishing, gaming, and 
drunkenness; provoking the frowns of 
almighty God upon themselves, and the 
guilty parents who have not restrained 
and taught them better. And who are 
guiltless, in this case? "Who, if now 
" weighed in the balance," would not be 
a found wanting f 5 God has a controversy 
with parents, on this subject; and, sooner 
or later, they will be called to an account, 
and, without speedy reformation, fearful 
must be the consequences. Such parents 
appear to be blind to their own, and the 
real interests of their families, and seem 
to study to reach the summit of inconsist- 
ency. They are deeply anxious to accu 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 87 

mulate the means of temporal comfort for 
their children; have ample means pro- 
vided to convey their produce to market 
with the least delay, and at the right time 
to secure the highest prices, while there 
is little or no concern for the salvation of 
their children's souls ; no provision made 
to convey their families to the church, on 
the Sabbath ; and if their neglected chil- 
dren were even to propose to accompany 
them to the house of prayer, in many 
instances, they would be taken by sur- 
prise, and would object, that their apparel 
was not suitable, and that there was no 
convenient means of conveyance to the 
place of divine worship. All this, too, 
would be nothing less than a tacit confes- 
sion of their own delinquencies, as parents, 
and the little regard they had for the eter- 
nal well-being of the immortal souls com- 
mitted to their care. 

And now, with these evils fully before 
our eyes, it can not be difficult to deter- 
mine what must be done, to correct and 
reform them, and to bring ourselves and 



86 



DISCOURSE ON 



families to the standard, " As for me and 
my house, we will serve the Lord." The 
parents — the united head — must, also, in 
this case, be deeply impressed with a 
sense of their obligations and duties ; and 
they must be firmly resolved, in the 
strength of divine grace, to meet, and 
faithfully to discharge all their duties and 
responsibilities to God, their families, and 
themselves. There must be not only a 
unity of conviction of their importance, 
but, also, an entire unanimity of effort to 
carry out all those works and plans of 
piety, which are implied in, and belong 
to, serving the Lord, with our household. 

1. This eminently includes parental ex- 
ample, in maintaining that meekness and 
fervor of Christian spirit and temper of 
mind that are alike the ornament, com- 
fort, and sweetness of the whole domestic 
circle. Without these virtues, all other 
efforts will be unavailing. 

2. It, furthermore, includes that patient 
and watchful piety, that never fails to im 
part proper lessons of instruction, on the 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



89 



importance of shunning wicked associa- 
tions, and of attending on the ministry of 
the Gospel, among the people of God. 
The occurrences and incidents of every 
day, may furnish occasion for, and may 
be improved into instructions of this kind, 
suited to the circumstances and capacities 
of the family, which, with the blessing of 
God, will make them "wise unto salva- 
tion." And in the holy Scriptures, the 
infallible source of all truth, the faithful 
parents will find exhaustless variety of 
instructive incident, suited to the various 
conditions of every member of the house- 
hold, from stammering infancy to inexpe- 
rienced youth, and mature age. But, 

3. It implies that active, persevering 
piety, on the part of parents, which guards 
with vigilance the path of duty, both for 
themselves and their families ; ever watch- 
ful, and ready to remove hinderances out 
of the way of duty, by explaining imagin- 
ary difficulties, and by presenting real 
ones in their true character; thereby 
diminishing the fear of the cross, and en- 



90 



DISCOURSE ON 



couraging the hopes of those who have, 
as yet, but little experience in the things 
of religion. This work includes, 

4. The imperative duty of parents to 
furnish every facility possible for their 
families regularly to attend the public 
means of grace. The neglect of this, 
small a matter as it may seem to be, has, 
no doubt, laid the foundation, in thou- 
sands of instances, for the desecration of 
the Sabbath, the ruin of families, and the 
hopeless perdition of souls. It can not 
be too deeply engraven upon the hearts 
and consciences of all concerned, that 
God requires parents to serve him with 
their household or families; that is, to 
perform all the duties and obligations of 
Christianity, which he has instituted, and 
made obligatory upon them, according to 
their several relations, age, knowledge, 
and capacities ; and that, among those 
Christian duties stands, prominently, that 
of his public worship, in the assembly of 
the saints. Consequently, till parents have 
done all that is in their pow r er to bring their 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



91 



children, servants, and all that appertain 
to their domestic charge to the Lord, in 
the observance of his own institutions, 
and, particularly, the acknowledging of 
him in his own house, among his people, 
their religion is assuredly defective, and 
they are most fearfully delinquent in the 
sight of God. And especially should 
parents avail themselves of the advantages 
of Sabbath schools, as the great auxiliary 
of the Church, to aid them in bringing 
their families to Christ, and to the king- 
dom of heaven. 

The unquestionable obligation, ines- 
timable privilege, untold utility and im- 
portance of social religious worship, in a 
congregational capacity, has been ac- 
knowledged by the Church, in all places, 
and in every period of her history. And 
so scrupulous have been the pious in ob- 
serving this divine institution, especially 
when walking in, and nearest to, the light 
of apostolic example, and when the Church 
was most distinguished for simplicity and 
piety, that thousands, even when borne 



92 



DISCOURSE ON 



down by the hand of despotism and per- 
secution, have assembled in caves, and 
secluded places in the mountains, at the 
hour of midnight, and that, too, at the 
peril of their property, liberty, and lives, 
to receive the word of exhortation and 
comfort — to rejoice in the communion and 
fellowship of the saints, and devoutly to 
worship God, their present and all-suffi- 
cient Savior. And not a few, for their 
ardent zeal and invincible faithfulness in 
this branch of Christian duty, were doomed 
to suffer death by martyrdom, in its most 
appalling forms. As neither the claims 
of God nor the character of religion has 
changed, to conform to the one, and enjoy 
the other, children must accompany their 
parents to the house of social and divine 
worship, and by this, and all other means, 
be restrained from evil associations and 
practices, that have spread moral desola- 
tion through the world, and be brought 
into the worshiping assembly, and under 
the influence and teachings of the Gospel 
of Christ, and the faithful prayers of the 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



93 



Church. And not till parents fully acquit 
themselves to their own consciences and 
to their God, in regard to this duty, can 
they, with faith and confidence, pray for, 
or expect the conversion of their chil- 
dren — their families ; much less can they 
rationally hope to see them die in peace, 
or to meet them in the kingdom of end- 
less blessedness, in the final judgment. 



94 



DISCOURSE ON 



PART III. 

"Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise 
of the life that now is, and of that which is to come," 
1 Timothy rv, 8. 

III. In directing attention to some of 
the considerations that should prompt to 
holy diligence in the great work of serv- 
ing the Lord with our household, the chief 
difficulty is, to make a judicious selection, 
that can be presented in a condensed 
form, from the almost infinite variety that 
lies all around us, and of which the world 
is full. Motives, vast as the human mind 
can conceive of, cluster around, and press 
upon us, from the world beneath, around, 
and above us ; from time past, time pass- 
ing, and from the immense, the untold, 
the infinite future. But time and circum- 
stance forbid our doing more than name 
a few of them. 

1. The first that we mention, and the 
lowest that should ever occupy the minds 
of parents in this connection, is of a per 
cuniary character, affecting their interests 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



95 



principally in this world. To name this 
as a motive to domestic piety, is allowable 
only in view of the fact that the lawful 
acquisition and proper application of pe- 
cuniary means is not only a source of ad- 
missible Christian comfort in this life, 
but may greatly increase the usefulness 
of the pious, by extending the means and 
agencies of the Gospel, for the salva- 
tion of others — the salvation of a ruined 
world — and thereby, also, of glorifying 
God; and, furthermore, from the fact 
that repeated and powerful appeals are 
made, by the enemies of religion, to the 
avarice and cupidity of fallen human na- 
ture, to prevent men from devoting them- 
selves to the service of God. Church 
expenses ; the erection of houses of wor- 
ship; the support of the "priesthood," as 
it is contemptuously called; sustaining 
the various benevolent institutions — Bible, 
tract, and Sabbath school societies ; the 
immense expense of the missionary cause, 
consuming its millions by the year, are 
all arrayed in fearful, and frequently in 



96 



DISCOURSE ON 



exaggerated colors before their minds; 
and every passion of their covetous hearts 
is eloquently addressed, either directly, 
or by ingenious insinuations, warning 
them of the privations of poverty, if they 
become pious ; and inviting them to the 
distinctions and luxuries of wealth, on 
condition that they abstain from the cross 
of Christ — the service of God ; and espe- 
cially with their household or family. 
And, doubtless, not a few are taken in 
this snare of Satan, transformed into an 
angel of light, and are well pleased with, 
love, and cherish the dreadful delusion, 
till the providence of God arrests them, 
_and the resistless stroke of death breaks 
the fatal spell, and reveals to them their 
consummate folly, when it is hopelessly 
too late to mitigate, or escape its conse- 
quences. 

But what are some of the facts in this 
case ? No one needs to be told that de- 
pravity and irreligion, both in the case of 
individuals and families, are frequently 
found in connection with, if they are not 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



97 



directly tlie cause of such a degree of 
indolence and recklessness of means, as 
to lead to the most abject poverty and 
wretchedness. On the other hand, where 
these consequences do not follow^, not un- 
frequently extravagance and excess reign, 
without restraint or reason. Look abroad 
upon the operations of human society, 
and witness the unnumbered millions that 
are annually expended, either for the 
direct support of sinful practices, or to 
prevent or remedy the evils that flow from 
those sources — those fountains of deprav- 
ity and crime! Take, in the range of 
observation, the theater, the gambling and 
grog-shops, the state-prisons, and houses 
of infamy ; also, the less repulsive sources 
of sin and expenditure. Look at the ex- 
penses of the hosts of police-officers, and 
the criminal jurisprudence ; and then the 
cases of individual and domestic extrava- 
gance ; the costly, fashionable apparel and 
furniture; the perfectly useless, but ex- 
pensive, gay, and ungodly ornaments ; see 

the thousands of families, claiming that 

7 



98 



DISCOURSE ON 



kind and degree of refinement and eleva- 
tion of character that, in their view, 
almost wholly exempt them from the 
claims of Christianity, maintaining their 
present pretensions, display, fashion, and 
folly, at the fearful cost of certain bank- 
ruptcy in the future. Then behold their 
end, in the melancholy wreck of families 
who have gone before them in the same 
scenes of extravagance and sin ; the bro- 
ken fragments, in the person of profligate 
and prodigal children, in almost vagabond 
form, floating down the stream of time, 
a moral pest in community, and a solemn 
warning to all who neglect the cross of 
Christ, and the crown of life, for the fol- 
lies of earth and the pleasures of sin, and 
then talk about Church expenses, the cost 
of religion — then talk about fleeing from 
the precincts of the sanctuary of God, as 
the surest, if not the only means of avoid- 
ing poverty and bankruptcy. 

But fearful and indescribable as are 
those consequences of human folly and 
sin, in reference to. God's temporal bless- 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



99 



ings, it is not claiming too much for re- 
ligion when it is announced as the infal- 
lible remedy for them all; " for godliness 
is profitable unto all things, haying prom- 
ise of the life that now is, and of that 
which is to come." This fact is fully 
demonstrated in the history of the truly 
religious, as the result of serving God 
with their household. And the reasons 
are obvious. 

(1.) For an invariable fruit of genuine 
piety is habitual industry, and the studious 
improvement of precious time, for the 
glory of God, in the well-being and salva- 
tion of man. Indolence is as irreconcila- 
ble and incompatible with Scriptural piety 
as darkness with light, falsehood with 
truth, or profanity with godliness ! And 
while the Bible is revered as the record 
of God in this case, there can be no more 
difficulty in determining to what class the 
lazy man belongs, than in deciding the 
character of "the tree, by the fruit which 
it bears." 

(2.) True piety produces economy in the 



100 



DISCOURSE ON 



application cmd use of means — the tem- 
poral blessings of the Author of our being. 
It makes the word of God the rule of its 
expenditures ; and this prohibits all use- 
less ornament of person, all unnecessary 
and costly display of furniture, carriages, 
and equipages of every kind. The mem- 
bers of the enlightened, consistent, Chris- 
tian family, in these, and all other mat- 
ters requiring the application of means 
and money, recognize themselves as stew- 
ards of the Lord, and accountable to him, 
in the great day of final retribution, for 
this trust confided to their care. Conse- 
quently, they use and apply all those 
means in the fear of God, with a single 
eye to his glory, their own responsibility, 
the advancement of his cause in the earth, 
and the salvation of mankind in heaven. 

(3.) What is of still greater importance 
is, that they have the promises of the 
special blessings of God upon the labors 
of their hcmd. "The hand of the dili- 
gent maketh rich ;" and, " thou shalt eat 
the labor of thy hands : happy shalt thou 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



101 



be, and it shall be well with thee." 
Again: "They shall be blessed in their 
basket and their store, their flocks and 
herds ; in the works of their hands ; in 
their going out, and their incoming and 
also in their souls and bodies, and in their 
families, in this and in the life to come. 
Who can conceive of any condition more 
desirable, this side of the final resting- 
place of the pious, in heaven, than is here 
promised to the faithful families and peo- 
ple of God? They have set out for the 
kingdom, on the great principle, M As for 
me and my house, we will serve the 
Lord." They have not contemplated it 
as a mere theory, name, or form ; but as 
a Divine rule — a Divine obligation and 
sacred duty, involving all their real com- 
forts and happiness, in this and the future 
world, in time and eternity. Deeply im- 
pressed with its importance, they have 
reduced it into diligent practice, and have 
fully tested the divinity of the promises ; 
and that God accepts, through the Son of 
his love, the humble offering of the de- 



102 



DISCOURSE ON 



voted family, has become a vital element 
of their daily experience. They have 
learned, in a manner not to be questioned, 
that the household, fully consecrated to 
God, is honored with the abiding presence 
of the Prince of peace. From this hal- 
lowed source, they derive that refined, 
intellectual, and spiritual bliss, which the 
whole range of mere earthly amusements 
can never impart. They have comforts, 
happiness, rich, abundant, full, divine, 
at home ; and when they go abroad, it is 
not to seek from the joys of earth "to fill 
an aching void within but, in obedience 
to the calls of Christian duty, that they 
may glorify God, in diffusing among oth- 
ers the influence of that salvation in 
which they rejoice, in sure and certain 
hope of a blessed immortality in heaven. 

Whatever may be their circumstances, 
in other respects, " they are rich in faith, 
and heirs of an incorruptible inheritance, 
reserved for them, at the right hand of 
God." Their enjoyment depends not on 
the position assigned them in society, by 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



103 



the arbitrary rules of refinement or dig- 
nity of character, prescribed in the codes 
of distinction adopted by the children of 
this world ; nor in the profusion of per- 
sonal decorations, the splendor of parlors, 
the honors of office, the glories of power, 
or the delusions of wealth. These are all 
trifles, that have lost their attractions, in 
the light of the glorious Gospel of the 
Son of God — have lost their potency over 
hearts renewed by the power of the Holy 
Spirit; hearts detached from the objects 
of earth ; bearing the image of their Sav- 
ior ; filled with the love of God ; all their 
affections sanctified, and wholly concen- 
trated on him, as the exhaustless source 
of salvation and glory. 

Hence, when viewed in the true light, 
it ceases to be matter of surprise, that 
families, reduced to poverty and want by 
indolence, excess, and sin, when they turn 
to God, and make his service, and enjoy- 
ment domestically, the end for which they 
live, should increase in means and tem- 
poral comforts, and fully realize the prom- 



104 



DISCOURSE OH 



ise that "godliness is profitable unto all 
things," But all this might pass for 
nothing more than some "beautiful theory, 
or pleasing speculation on a fine subject, 
were it not for the undeniable fact that 
the Gospel furnishes so many families, 
disinthralled, elevated, and bearing the 
image of Christ, as the trophies of its own 
glorious victories. We can scarcely survey 
Christian communities from any point, 
but we behold individuals and families 
who, previous to their conversion to God, 
were bankrupt, not only in their purse 
and property, but in character, reputation, 
public confidence, and morals ; but, when 
they embraced Christ, as their only Savior, 
and consecrated themselves wholly to the 
service of God, they have, by divine grace, 
arisen into favor and confidence with both 
God and man ; regenerated in heart, char- 
acter, and circumstances, they occupy im- 
portant and useful stations in civil society 
and in the Church of Christ — living wit- 
nesses of the glorious fact that " old things 
have passed away, and behold all things 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



105 



have become new," as the happy result, 
under the provisions of the Gospel, of 
"serving the Lord with their whole 
house." 

2. The principle of justice demands of 
parents that they " serve God with their 
families" The law of nature makes it 
the first duty of parents to consult the 
best interests of their offspring, by main- 
taining, protecting, and educating them. 
And even where the light of revelation 
has not shown, and where these interests 
are supposed to consist chiefly in the use 
of the bow, and the pursuits and achieve- 
ments of the chase, this duty of parents 
can not be neglected, without the sin of 
injustice to their children, by violating 
this law of nature. 

But to those to whom God speaks in 
his revealed will, "And ye parents pro- 
voke not your children to wrath, but bring 
them up in the nurture and admonition 
of the Lord," and, " Train up your chil- 
dren in the way they should go: and 
when they are old, they will not depart 



106 



DISCOURSE ON 



from it ;-" the obligation to seek, not only 
the temporal, but, also, the spiritual and 
eternal interests of their families, is as 
plain and imperative as the precept is 
clear and divine. And to neglect their 
duties must be an act of gross injustice 
to their children, who have a right to 
demand, and, in all justice, are entitled 
to receive what God has commanded par- 
ents to impart to, and perform for, them. 
This case is perfectly clear in matters 
pertaining to this life only. By common 
consent, the parents who, by prodigality 
and excess, needlessly waste their tempo- 
ral substance, neglecting to provide for, 
and thereby reduce their children to pov- 
erty, with all its inconveniences and con- 
sequences, are pronounced unjust to their 
offspring, and guilty of an outrage upon 
their best worldly interests. But this 
injustice is greatly aggravated, when 
means have been intrusted, by others, in 
the hands of parents for the future well- 
being of their children, and they have 
not only neglected to make this provision 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



107 



themselves, but have misapplied and 
totally wasted the means of comfort and 
happiness that others have provided for 
them. 

But who can estimate the claims of 
justice upon parents, in a moral point of 
view, to promote the spiritual interests of 
their children, by serving God with their 
families, when the great trust confided to 
them for that specific object is calmly 
considered? It has already been seen 
that, in the order of Providence, they 
sustain relations to their children that 
none others do or can, and that these 
relations invest them with an authority, 
and secure to them an influence, that God 
has withheld from all others in regard to 
their families. Hence, to them is com- 
mitted, in a singular and eminent degree, 
the interests and happiness of their fam- 
ilies in this and the world to come. God 
can not require less, at their hands, than 
that they employ and apply all those 
advantages and influences for the pur- 
poses for which they were given, namely, 



108 



DISCOURSE ON 



to train their children in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord — to train them 
for usefulness here and heaven hereafter. 
Nothing less than the prudent exercise of 
parental authority, the faithful applica- 
tion of the moral principles of the Gos- 
pel, the regular use of all the means of 
grace, and the light of their humble 
Christian example steadily illuminating 
their household — all tending to the same 
great object — the glory of God in the 
promotion of domestic piety, and the 
final salvation of their families, can pos- 
sibly exempt them from the awful charge 
of cruel injustice to their immortal off- 
spring. And the fact that the children, 
from incapacity, inexperience, ignorance, 
or any other cause, may not see this obli- 
gation of parents, nor demand its fulfill- 
ment, does, by no means, extenuate, but 
must fearfully aggravate, the delinquency 
and augment their perdition for the neg- 
lect. 

The strength of those claims will be 
seen with increased clearness in consider- 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



109 



ing still further the power of parental 
example over their household. This may 
be seen in every department of human 
society; and the effects of this influence 
are not transient and momentary, but, 
most generally, they are permanent and 
durable. Parental example draws its 
lines deep, and, frequently, indelible, giv- 
ing a bias to the tender mind that grows 
through life, developing, in manhood and 
age, the impressions received from this 
source in childhood and youth, and bear- 
ing into eternity those characteristics thus 
received in time. There are, doubtless, 
those now in the paradise of God, who, 
in their holy habitation, recognize such 
parental example and influence as the 
powerful means, under God, of awaken- 
ing them to a sense of their sin and dan- 
ger of endless death — of bringing them 
to the cross of Christ, and from the cross 
to the crown of glory ; and, at the same 
time, and in the same light, see that in 
all this the parents did no more than 
what was their imperative duty — no more 



110 



DISCOURSE ON 



than what justice required of them, and 
that to have done less would have been 
ruinous injustice to their children, to 
themselves, and to their God. 

On the other hand, the evidence is too 
clear to be resisted, that there are those 
who, from the prison of hopeless perdi- 
tion, see that the example of ungodly par- 
ents was one of the fearful agencies of 
their final ruin, and through all eternity 
may charge them with unmitigated injus- 
tice, as the agents of the endless anguish 
of those whom they were the instruments 
of bringing into being. O, what a sol- 
emn thought ! But who appreciates the 
responsibility that parents, in all their 
conduct and conversation, in the spirit 
they diffuse, and the entire example they 
exhibit in the domestic circle, are making 
im*pressions and forming characters for 
heaven or hell? In view of these facts, 
all who have overlooked or placed these 
considerations among the ordinary con- 
cerns of life, should awake to their duty 
without a moment's delay. Divine Jus- 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



Ill 



tice can not be trifled with — will not 
always slumber. God is not "a hard 
master, reaping where he has not sown." 
For, while he has committed to parents 
high, honorable, and important trusts, in- 
volving the best interests of man and his 
own glory, he has richly illuminated the 
path of their duty by the light of revela- 
tion, and encouraged their hope by the 
promised help of almighty grace. He 
visits their hearts by the operations of the 
Holy Spirit, and proffers them heaven as 
the gracious reward of faithfulness in his 
work on earth. But it is a melancholy 
fact that, even under these gracious cir- 
cumstances, with so many powerful mo- 
tives to duty, many have not merely 
buried their talents, by neglecting the 
reasonable obligations of Christianity, but 
have fearfully perverted them, by turning 
the whole weight of the influence of their 
example in their families against religion 
and the cross of Christ, and are thereby 
presumptuously leading down to perdi- 
tion those whom, by all possible dili- 



112 



DISCOURSE ON 



gence, under God, they should strive to 
conduct to heaven. "Who will be able, in 
the final judgment, to meet the conse- 
sequences of such folly and madness in 
time? Divine Justice watches with an 
impartial eye, and demands action — im- 
mediate action. Parents have already 
slumbered too long, and their delinquen- 
cies have, for years, been crying to heav- 
en against them. There is not a moment 
now to lose. God requires reformation, 
and that they bring their children — their 
whole families — in the arms of fervent 
prayer ; and that, by the hands of living 
faith, they present them before the throne 
of heavenly grace, and in the light of 
their own example, and by his exhaust- 
less strength they gather their household 
home to heaven. 

3. The principle of benevolence should 
prompt parents to the most careful culti- 
vation of domestic piety. "While justice 
requires men impartially to render to all 
their due, or what they have a right to 
demand, and unconditionally condemns 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 113 

for withholding or misapplying what be- 
longs to, or should be used for, the benefit 
of others, benevolence can still go beyond 
and impart favors that justice can not 
demand, but does not censure or forbid. 
Benevolence is that virtue, or principle, 
in the renewed heart, that not only re- 
coils at the idea of inflicting wrong upon 
any being, but which ardently desires 
and promptly seeks, in the use of all law- 
ful and suitable means, the felicity of all 
creatures capable of enjoying, and for 
which God has provided comfort and 
happiness. The greatest efforts of en- 
lightened benevolence will be directed to 
the objects where there is the most ra- 
tional prospect of success ; and with par- 
ents entertaining correct views of this 
subject, those objects will first be found 
at home, in the members of their own 
families. It is not difficult to awaken in 
the bosom of reflecting parents deep solic- 
itude for the comfort and well-being of 
their children in this world. They call 

to their aid the experience of the past, 
8 



114 



DISCOURSE ON 



their knowledge of the present, and their 
most skillful anticipations of the future, 
in order to secure the objects of their ten- 
der regard — their children — against tem- 
poral privations, and to procure for them 
the blessings of this short life. But true 
benevolence, daily surrounded with those 
interesting objects most calculated to kin- 
dle this divine virtue to a holy flame, 
while it is neither a stranger to this anxi- 
ety for inferior blessings, nor indifferent 
with regard to their attainment, looks far 
beyond to treasures — spiritual, enduring, 
and divine — and seeks them with a zeal 
and energy worthy their own glorious 
magnitude, and the worth of the immor- 
tal souls for whom they are sought. 

As active benevolence is alike a prac- 
tical evidence and living fruit of genuine 
piety, it is difficult to conceive of a great- 
er inconsistency than for parents to pro- 
fess the latter and be destitute of the 
former, particularly with regard to their 
families, in reference to whom God has 
furnished them with so many facilities for 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



115 



usefulness. But many, who are deeply 
involved in this inconsistency, would 
deem it unpardonable severity to be pro- 
nounced destitute of the grace of benev- 
olence toward their household. They 
claim earnestly to deprecate their suffer- 
ing, and ardently to desire their salva- 
tion. Taking them, then, on their own 
profession, let them answer, in the name 
of reason — in the name of Christian can- 
dor — in the name of God — whether they 
can sit down in the midst of their dear 
children, and look around upon their 
lovely families, and recollect that they 
have chosen that highly-responsible rela- 
tion which made them the instruments of 
their earthly existence, either to be heirs 
of the joys of heaven, or the sorrows of 
hell? and whether they can see them, with 
every step, and with every breath, hasten- 
ing on to the tomb and eternity — an eter- 
nity of blessedness or woe, and not feel 
their hearts moved with the tenderest 
emotions, and penetrated with the deep- 
est solicitude for their salvation? If they 



116 



DISCOURSE ON 



can survey this moving scene, and in- 
dulge those solemn reflections, and con- 
template the meeting of their families at 
the bar of God without the benevolence 
of their hearts being stirred up to a flame 
that will almost consume them in its fer- 
vor, and without resolving, if they have 
never done it before, " as for me and my 
house, we will serve the Lord," they have 
awful reason to fear that their "religion 
is vain" and that they are "hardened 
through the deceitfulness of sin," and are 
leading their families down to the horrors 
of the second death, where the blood of 
their morally-murdered offspring will be 
found in their skirts. 

4. Parents should he induced to serve 
the Lord, with their household, hy that 
divine principle — love. For the wisest 
and best of purposes, man has been en- 
dowed, by the Author of his being, with 
the capacity to love. And although the 
philosophy may not be easily defined, or 
explained, its exercise is so universal that 
the fact that man can and does love vari- 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



117 



cms objects, has become a common ele- 
ment of experience, and is sufficiently 
intelligible for all practical purposes. Or- 
dinarily this affection of the heart is ex- 
cited by surrounding and external objects 
of beauty and congeniality to the taste, 
views, feelings, and habits of mind. Par- 
ents, generally, from the natural relation 
to, and connection with, their children, 
see beauty of person, sprightliness of 
mind, or development of intellect, that 
renders them objects of love. 

Men of profound thought and deep re- 
search into the different departments of 
nature, while contemplating the sublime 
exhibition of the perfections of God — his 
infinite wisdom, power, and goodness in 
creation and providence — feel that he is 
an object of love, and, generally, profess 
to love him. But all this profession is 
rather an extorted confession of their 
judgment, with regard to duty, than the 
ardent affection of their hearts in its per- 
formance. For it is the solemn declara- 
tion of the Bible, as humiliating to the 



118 



DISCOURSE ON 



pride of the depraved human heart as 
the announcement is divine and true, that 
the " carnal mind is enmity against God" 
Consequently, unrenewed by the power 
of the Holy Spirit, fallen man never can 
love God in that evangelical sense which 
is absolutely indispensable to Scriptural 
piety; and any conclusion to the con- 
trary, is but a species of ruinous self- 
delusion. Hence, while it is the impera- 
tive duty of parents to serve God with 
their house, and while love is the vital 
principle in this great work, and without 
which it is madness even to dream of 
success, they must look beyond them- 
selves, to the fullness of the atonement of 
Jesus Christ, for this heavenly principle — 
this divine qualification. It is of the 
first importance, both to the parents, who 
must act in the premises, and the family 
whom, instrumentally, they should lead 
. to God, that this subject be clearly under- 
stood. That love which, through the 
merits and mediation of Christ, must 
commend them to God, prepare them for, 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



119 



and assist them in bringing their children 
to, the cross, is not the promptings of 
merely-external objects through the me- 
dium of sense or sight, but it is impressed 
upon, and wrought in, the heart, through 
the power of living faith and the renew- 
ing of the Holy Spirit. 

As a blessing, purchased by the sacri- 
ficial death and boundless merits of the 
Savior, a degree of divine grace is un- 
conditionally given to every man to en- 
lighten his mind, affect his heart, and 
arouse his conscience to a sense of guilt, 
by reason of his personal depravity and 
willful wickedness in the sight of God. 
In the light of this grace, cordially re- 
ceived and honestly improved, he will be 
led clearly to see, and deeply to feel his 
perilous and undone condition in conse- 
quence of sin — his total unpreparedness 
to die — his entire unfitness for an associa- 
tion with the saved in heaven — his utter 
inability to escape this peril by renewing 
his own heart or changing his moral na- 
ture. He sees, also, that men and angels 



120 



DISCOURSE ON 



are equally impotent, with himself, to re- 
move the guilt from his soul, the burden 
from his heart, or to restore him to the 
favor of an offended God. In the same 
light, he sees that the infinite holiness and 
justice of God could not do less than to 
hold him in abhorrence while in rebellion 
against his Maker. He feels, indeed, 
that his position is fearful, and his case 
almost hopeless. Condemned by the law 
of God; condemned by the Divine per- 
fections ; condemned by the piety of the 
saints — the virtues of the good ; condemn- 
ed at the bar of his conscience — deeply 
self-condemned ; exposed every moment 
to the shafts of death, and in danger of 
going down quickly to hell, he exclaims, 
" O wretched man that I am, who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death ?" 
But just at the point where it seems to 
him all must be lost, the declarations of 
Divine grace, and the promises of God's 
mercy, address themselves to his anguish- 
ed mind: "As I live, saith Jehovah, I 
have no pleasure in the death of the sin- 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



121 



ner;" " God so loved the world that he 
gave his only Son, that whosoever believ- 
eth in him might not perish, but have 
everlasting life;" "Jesus Christ, by the 
grace of God, tasted death for every 
man •" " He bore our sins in his own body 
on the tree;" "That God might be just 
and the justifier of every one that be- 
lieveth in Jesus; 5 ' "Son, give me thy 
heart;" "Whosoever cometh unto me I 
will in no wise cast out." The whole 
Divine character assumes a new aspect. 
" God, manifest in the flesh," now, indeed, 
appears to the eyes of his trembling 
faith "the fairest among ten thousand, 
and altogether lovely," and by that hum- 
ble, confiding faith which includes refor- 
mation, repentance, and entire consecra- 
tion to the service of God, he lays hold 
on Christ, in all his offices and character, 
as his only, all-sufficient, present, willing, 
and almighty Savior. God accepts the 
offering, through the Son of his love ; the 
Holy Spirit applies the blood of atone- 
ment to the washing the guilt of sin from 



122 



DISCOURSE ON 



his conscience ; regenerates his soul, 
and renews him in the glorious, moral 
image of Jesits Christ, and inspires in 
and fills his new heart with that love 
which is " sweeter than life and stronger 
than death." This love, in its practical 
operations, not merely enkindles in the 
heart an esteem or affection for religion, 
but constitutes its living soul, and the 
sum and fullness of Christian duties ; for 
"love is the fulfillment of the whole law." 
Now, taught by the holy Scriptures, and 
no longer walking by sight but by faith, 
he sees the whole Divine character, in the 
person of Jesus Christ, in such a light as 
to command the supreme affection of his 
whole heart. He thus beholds him in 
consequence of what Tie is in himself. 
Each of his perfections presents an infinity 
of loveliness, and when contemplated to- 
gether, by faith, they are sweetly and 
sublimely overwhelming — what he has 
done for him in creating, preserving, and 
redeeming him ; what he has accomplish- 
ed in him, in saving him from the love, 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



123 



the practice, the guilt, and the power of 
sin ; and what he has prepared for him 
in the future — deliverance from all the 
ills of earth and time — a crown, a throne, 
a kingdom, and an eternal weight of 
glory with himself in heaven. 

Who will not pause and inquire, with 
an anxiety and ardor deep and earnest as 
the human soul can bear, whether they 
possess this heavenly treasure of divine 
love? This love, which is but another 
term for pure religion, as an effect, bears 
the impress of its holy cause, and dis- 
plays the divinity of its origin in the 
manner in which it performs the work 
assigned it by its author. For, unlike 
the sordid love of the unrenewed heart, 
it is not excited and attracted to its ob- 
jects by the gayety of the earth, or the 
" glory of man;" nor is it repulsed by the 
shades of obscurity, the gloom of igno- 
rance, the privations of poverty, or the 
anguish of sufferings. Unmoved by mere 
contingencies and distinctions like these, 
which must all soon be merged, mingled, 



124 



DISCOURSE ON 



and lost in the tomb, it penetrates the 
vail of appearances, passes beyond ex- 
ternal circumstances, and selects its ob- 
jects with reference to intrinsic worth, 
and importance of character and nature. 

Hence, wherever it finds intelligence 
which either loves and enjoys God, or 
that may be brought into that moral state, 
it finds an object of its sacred regard. It 
is on this principle that the true Chris- 
tian, whose heart is fully under the Divine 
influence, not only loves with delight the 
pious and good, but with pity the irrelig- 
ious and vile, without regard to moral 
character or temporal circumstances ; for, 
though now in a state of revolt and re- 
bellion against the Author of their being, 
they possess intellect and immortality, 
which, if they will yield to divine grace, 
may be reclaimed to God, employed in 
his service, filled with his love, and 
crowned with his glory forever. The 
Christian, with peculiar feelings of ten- 
derness, sympathy, and pity, loves their 
souls, and ardently desires, and faithfully 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



125 



labors for their salvation in heaven. This 
love is an active principle, constituting 
alike the ornament and peace of its pos- 
sessor, and the energy and soul of all ac- 
tive benevolence and holy Christian en- 
terprise. While Christians are prompted 
by its power to the greatest efforts for the 
advancement of the cause of Christ, and 
while their hearts glow with fervent char- 
ity for all men who are within the reach 
of divine mercy, they are not the victims 
of a blind zeal, neglecting what is prac- 
ticable, and spending their time, means, 
and strength, in attempting to accomplish 
what is beyond their reach ; but they se- 
lect those fields for cultivation which are 
most accessible, and those objects that are 
most clearly indicated by the wisdom of 
Providence. The well-informed Chris- 
tian parents, therefore, can be at no loss 
to know where to commence this great 
work for their Master. Those fields are 
found near their own fireside — those ob- 
jects are their own immortal offspring; 
and motives, high as heaven, and far 



126 



DISC0UKSE ON 



deeper than the grave, appeal to their 
Christian love, their love of souls, their 
love of the souls of their own dear fami- 
lies, to awake to this work in earnest, and 
prosecute it in the name and strength of 
Jesus Christ, to its final consummation. 
We have neither time nor disposition now 
to discuss that cold-hearted, or, rather, 
heartless heresy, that parents are to feel 
no more desire, anxiety, or love, for the 
salvation of their children, than for the 
veriest stranger of our race ! It is treason 
against the order God has established in 
the domestic circle, the relation he has 
ordained between parents and children, 
the imperative duties he requires of par- 
ents, and the very constitution and nature 
he has given them. The mildest verdict 
that can be rendered against it is, that as it 
has no authority from the divine record, 
no sympathy with enlightened Christian 
experience, it should perish from the 
earth, and never find a lodgment for a 
moment in the bosom of man. God has 
implanted the principle in the heart, and 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



127 



made it the duty of parents to love their 
children ; and so natural and powerful is 
this affection, till it is fearfully perverted 
by sin, that its exercise does not depend 
on the personal attractions of their off- 
spring, but it extends to all, and fre- 
quently is most fervent for those who are 
least the favorites of nature. All this is 
generally true of unconverted parents; 
but when the heart is fully renewed in the 
image of Christ, and every passion of 
their nature brought under the influence 
of heavenly grace, and to this natural 
affection is added the fullness of divine 
love, they feel, or should feel, an interest 
and find in their bosom an affection — an 
inexpressible love for their children, that 
is only subordinate to their supreme love 
to God. This holy principle carries their 
contemplations far beyond merely tempo- 
ral interests and external circumstances, 
and fixes their attention on the treasure 
within — the immortal mind and its endless 
destiny. There they behold an object 
worthy of their most tender regard, and 



128 



DISCOURSE ON 



untiring vigilance for its eternal well- 
being — an object for which God has 
demonstrated his interest, his love, by the 
gift of his own Son ; and Christ, by his 
teachings, his poverty, tears, toils, agony, 
bloody sweat, and sacrificial death upon 
the cross ; the Holy Spirit, by his illumin- 
ations of the mind, his awakening and 
wooing influences, his long-suffering, and 
patient waiting to win the wandering soul 
to the blood of atonement — to the em- 
braces of the Son of God. This love 
leads the pious parents to contemplate 
their children, especially, with reference 
to the vast and unexplored future, and 
their capacity for improvement, and their 
susceptibility of enjoyment or of suffering. 
Here they see intelligence — mind, which, 
in despite of all obstructions, rushes back 
upon the pages of the past, and calls into 
present audience the events of other years, 
with a delightful facility that reveals its 
own inherent energies — intellect and will, 
that lay the vast volume of nature under 
contribution, reads its laws and expounds 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 129 

its mysteries — earth, water, air, light, 
heat, cold, clouds, storm, and even the 
lightnings of heaven, are, to a greater or 
less extent, commanded into submission 
to man, by the energies of his mind — a 
mind which, though now imprisoned in 
clay, and in person confined to a point, 
can, by the powers of thought, traverse 
and explore this rolling ball, on which it 
performs its probation for eternity, with 
an exercise so slight as scarcely to amount 
to mental recreation, and with a speed 
that outstrips the velocity of light; and 
in sublime adventure, peculiar to itself, 
rises above its own habitation, and contem- 
plates other spheres, throws its thoughts 
abroad upon boundless creation, and, 
prompted by its own constitution, and 
indulged by the Author of its being, rev- 
erently approaches the citizens of the 
skies, the gates of heaven, and the throne 
of God! 

But those grand exhibitions of thought 

and contemplation which, with more than 

electric speed return with their achieve- 
9 



V60 



DISCOURSE ON 



ments, and make report to the soul, are 
but the harbingers of the soul itself; for 
soon the immortal mind will break from 
its earthly prison, mount above, and soar 
in person, far beyond the explorings of 
thought, and, if prepared by holiness here 
for the inheritance in heaven, will asso- 
ciate with angels, mingle with the saints 
in light, and behold, with inexpressible 
raptures, the unclouded glory of God, the 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! There, 
every faculty, passion, and element of the 
soul, will be an avenue and receptacle ; 
and God the infinite fountain, from which 
all will be filled with that unutterable 
glory which is peculiar to, and that con- 
stitutes heaven ; and this boundless bliss, 
guaranteed by the broad seal of immor- 
tality, bearing the signature of Jehovah 
himself. But such is the marvelous struc- 
ture of the imperishable mind of man, 
that reason claims, and revelation con- 
cedes — or, rather, revelation, by fair con- 
struction, teaches, and sanctified reason 
rejoices in the fact — that the saint, thus 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



131 



inducted into heaven, is the possessor and 
heir of glory, but in miniature; and 
that the expansion of the soul, in probation 
on earth, from the first emotions of mind 
in the cradle, till the man stands on the 
summit, enshrined in all the light of 
literature and science, then regenerated, 
and bearing the moral image of the 
Son of God, closes the scenes of earth, 
is but a feeble illustration — a faint re- 
semblance of that inconceivably-sublime 
and incomprehensibly-glorious develop- 
ment of powers, enlargement of capacity, 
and approach to the perfections of God, 
■which lie before him in the grandeur of 
heaven, the provisions of immortality, 
and the glories of eternity. O, the intel- 
lect of man! Wonderful gift of God! 
Almost overwhelmed with a sense of its 
own greatness — a mystery to itself, as in- 
comprehensible as that of God who gave 
it — a conscious demonstration of its high 
origin and undying existence ! 

But, tremendous thought ! — parents, let 
it fully possess your hearts! — children, 



132 



DISCOURSE ON 



pause and reflect on it! — let the world 
of mankind pause and ponder it well ! — 
thought that less than an immortal mind 
could not entertain — that, without repent- 
ance and faith — without Scriptural holi- 
ness of heart and life in this world, through 
the atonement of Jesus Christ, those souls 
of men, with all their matchless powers 
of progression, and exquisite capacity to 
feel and suffer, will be forbidden to enter 
heaven, and will be "turned into hell, 
where the fire is not quenched, and where 
their worm dieth not," to endure, and en- 
hance the anguish of the lost, and expe- 
rience the accumulating woes that await 
them, as the progressive results of their 
own immortality, and the unalterable laws 
of eternity. 

And, O parents, is it the fact that each 
child belonging to the domestic charge — 
offspring and image of yourself — possesses 
such an untold and inestimable treasure, 
and is, through his or her own sins, and 
your negligence, inevitably destined to 
endure the doom of the damned, or, by 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



133 



your faithfulness, and his or her penitency 
and salvation from sins, to be exalted to 
the honors of heaven and the glories of 
Christ? And do you " love God with a 
pure heart, fervently and can you hesi- 
tate, for a moment, to stir up and put 
forth all your energies, in the strength and 
prevailing name of the Son of God, to 
bring your children to the cross, by serv- 
ing the Lord with all your household? 
O, think again, of the moral grandeur of 
this enterprise; the infinite wisdom that 
has planned it ; the infinite goodness and 
love that have provided the exhaustless 
means for its accomplishment ; the infinite 
power pledged for its consummation ; the 
authority by which it is undertaken ; the 
motives for its prosecution ; the promises 
of success ; the magnitude of the object 
to be achieved; the perdition that must 
follow delinquency, and the "eternal 
weight of glory" in heaven that will 
crown fidelity and perseverance in their 
triumphs ! Think of all these things, and 
let them have an abiding place in your 



134 



DISCOURSE ON 



bosoms ; and then act. Let the purpose 
to serve the Lord, domestically, be the 
unchanging and all-controlling law of 
your house, till you are called from pro- 
bation in time to the rewards of glory in 
eternity. 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



135 



PART IV. 

"If ye be willing and obedient, ^ye shall eat the good of 
the land ; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured 
with the sword : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken 
it," Isaiah i, 19, 20. 

IY. An appeal to parents in regard 

TO THE CONSEQUENCES FOR GOOD OR EVIL 
WHICH MUST FOLLOW UNFAITHFULNESS OR 
FIDELITY IN THEIR RELATION. 

1. In the progress of this discourse, we 
have visited the family, walked around 
the domestic altar, and seen who com- 
pose the household — each immortal, and 
all hastening to the tomb and eternity. 
We have beheld with awe the solemn ob- 
ligations which those assume by entering 
upon that relation which, by the appoint- 
ment of God, constitutes them heads of 
families ; and that even angels could not 
perform these obligations for them, and 
from which God can not release them, nor 
suffer their neglect with impunity, without 
abandoning his own moral government. 
We have also inspected the catalogue of 
divinely-appointed duties, the discharge of 



136 



DISCOURSE ON 



which is indispensable to meet the meas- 
ure of his claims upon them ; namely, to 
serve him with their house. We have 
further witnessed the cloud of motives 
that appeal to every element of their na- 
ture, and to every interest that is dear to 
them, for time and for eternity. And 
they must either brook the little less than 
blasphemy of charging God with exag- 
geration, by alarming their fears where 
there is no danger, and exciting their 
hopes when there is no reward, or allow 
that this subject admits of no comparison 
of the magnitude of its importance, nor 
delay in the performance of its duties. 
The relations of the domestic circle are 
not only expressly ordained of God, per- 
petual and universal in their obligations, 
but they form the foundation work of the 
whole superstructure of human society, in 
all its departments, subdivisions, and ag- 
gregate character, affecting, immediately 
or remotely, for weal or woe, the social, 
civil, political, temporal, the moral, re- 
ligious, spiritual, and eternal interests of 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



137 



our race. These are the springs that 
flow into, and constitute the great ocean 
of the world's inhabitants. The house- 
holds contain and supply the members of 
which states, nations, kingdoms, empires, 
and the Church of God are constituted. 
To these sources must nations look for 
their senators and rulers, and the Church 
for her children and teachers. And as 
God has published the fact, the converse 
of which is as true as the affirmative, 
"Train up a child in the way he should 
go, and when he is old he will not depart 
from it," parents may see, and may Heaven 
help them to feel ! the tremendous respon- 
sibilities that rest upon them in the case. 
He would be deemed a hypocrite, or des- 
titute of sense, who would deny that the 
impressions, habits, and training of child- 
hood and youth, give coloring and cast 
to the character of the man. Christ's re- 
buke to the Pharisees is proof in point: 
" As your fathers have done, so do ye." 

As those relations have been established 
for infinitely wise purposes, those who 



138 



DISCOURSE ON 



enter ujDon them can not possibly escape 
the consequences of their responsibilities 
in these relations. They must meet them, 
either in the faithful performance of the 
duties, and the enjoyment of their high 
and heavenly rewards, or in shame and 
guilt, and the curse of God for their neg- 
lect. The consequences are inevitable; 
God has ordained them. Delinquencies 
in domestic duties will grieve the Holy 
Spirit from your own bosom, drive the 
Prince of peace from your habitation, 
blast the best interests of human society, 
curse the world, multiply the prisoners of 
the pit, and augment the miseries of the 
lost forever; while fidelity will reverse 
the verdict, bring salvation to your own 
heart and house, secure the peace, protec- 
tion, and aid of " Emanuel, who is God 
with us," promote the well-being of man 
in time, defeat the dissembled angel in 
his diabolical purposes for the perdition 
of men, guide, by an example worthy 
of all imitation, the wandering millions 
of mankind to the cross and to the crown, 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



139 



and swell the songs and glories of heaven 
by the redeemed from the earth. 

But look at this subject still further ; 
for each parent and child of the human 
family has an interest in it, as enduring 
as immortality, and as changeless as the 
laws of God; but more especially, if 
possible, in our heaven-favored, republican 
America, which claims to have furnished, 
for the imitation of the world, a model 
government, pre-eminently "the home of 
the stranger, and the asylum of the op- 
pressed;" under which we enjoy higher 
social, civil, and religious privileges than 
any other portion of this sin-deranged 
globe, and where the people are supreme, 
and undeniably the sovereign source of all 
political power. Here, unlike most other 
subdivisions of the world, there is no 
standing army of daily-disciplined troops, 
whose interests are immeasurably re- 
moved from those of the masses of the 
people they essay to protect against inva- 
sions from abroad and tumults at home ; 
but, almost without an exception in the 



140 



DISCOURSE OJST 



history of nations, they are the means 
that undermine, the moth and mildew 
that blast, the instruments of the powers 
that oppress, the curse that consumes to 
the dust and to the dregs of poverty the 
people they pretend to protect. But, 
strange as the statement may appear, it 
is, nevertheless, true, that American par- 
ents are virtually the "standing army" 
of the nation. They have a controlling 
influence in the premises, that can give 
character to the nation — to the world. 
To them is committed, in general, by 
Divine appointment, the training and 
molding, from infancy to manhood, of 
those who constitute the citizens, and in 
whom is merged the soldiers of the whole 
land. They, by the Divine aid promised, 
can rear a nation with such clear views, 
deep feelings, and sound appreciation of 
public, national justice, as never to pro- 
voke the invasion of their own, by dis- 
turbing the rights of others ; and if, with- 
out provocation, their rights are infringed 
from abroad, He, before whom "all the 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



141 



nations of the earth are as a drop of the 
bucket, and are counted as the small dust 
of the balance," will direct and control 
the issue. They can accomplish this, by 
training their children for their proper 
place in the body-politic, with such habits 
of cheerful submission to just rule and 
government, such love of social and civil 
order, such enlightened zeal for the gen- 
eral peace and well-being of community, 
that every citizen will contribute his en- 
tire weight of character to the desired 
result, and constitute an efficient member 
of the nation's police. On the other 
hand, they can rear a generation — a race, 
reckless of all these interests — too ignorant 
to appreciate, too indolent to improve, 
and too impotent to preserve those gifts 
of Providence — the civil and religious 
blessings of the land. Unaccustomed, in 
childhood and youth, to obey and submit 
to proper authority, they will curse and 
hate the institutions that require those 
duties of them, in riper years. So vicious 
as to disregard the peace and happiness 



142 



DISCOURSE ON 



of others, they will utterly destroy their 
own. Conscious of their own degrada- 
tion, they will seek to level community to 
the same standard. The insubordination 
of their hearts, ripening into rebellion in 
action, they will become a social pestilence, 
" whose touch is contamination, and their 
embrace death!" 

"When these constitute the majority, 
and wield the power of the state, the na- 
tion's cup of crime is well-nigh filled, and 
soon, with a Sampson's blindness, and far 
more than his strength, they will bow 
themselves at the pillars of the temple 
of a nation's liberties, making its ruins 
alike their own sepulcher, and the monu- 
ment of their diabolical madness, and 
writing upon it in blood the epitaph, 
" Parents, American Protestant Parents, 
have been unfaithful to themselves, their 
children, and their God — they have be- 
trayed and murdered social, civil, and re- 
ligious liberty, ruined the nation, and pro- 
voked the curse of Heaven upon themselves 
and their guilty, degenerate offspring!' 5 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



143 



And to accomplish this work, heads of 
families have but little to do — little more 
than to remain inactive. And what little 
they have to do is easily done. They 
have only to allow their children generally 
to do as they please — to see that they love 
them so tenderly as not to correct them 
for any thing, and to warn the teachers 
that they must have the same toleration 
at school ; then bitterly blame the faith- 
ful minister who would dare to reprove 
them for disorders in the house of God ; 
explain away their minor follies, and apol- 
ogize for their major faults, and defend 
them in all things. Let them know that 
all who would observe or report their de- 
linquencies are slanderers of their dear 
children, and that in all such cases none 
are to be believed but themselves ; flatter 
and encourage their pride, and call it de- 
cency; admire their imperiousness, as a 
sense of honor and self-respect; praise 
their indifference to business, as a love of 
study, though they never read a page but 
in a novel or a newspaper; and their 



144 



DISCOURSE ON 



prodigality and excess, as high-minded 
liberality; applaud their contempt of all 
religion, as dignified abhorrence of sect- 
arian bigotry, and the work will be done. 
Yes, the deluded parents will fatally suc- 
ceed, not only in producing those fearful 
effects in social and civil society, but in 
the final ruin and hopeless perdition of 
those whom they affect to love so ardently. 
"But, ah! destruction stops not there;" 
they will succeed in their own irrevoca- 
ble calamity ; will inherit the disgrace of 
a thousand Judases, and provoke upon 
themselves the curse of Heaven's violated 
law, that must cleave to them as an eter- 
nal leprosy amidst the undying lamenta- 
tions of an endless night. 

But is all this only the imaginings of a 
superstitious mind or a disordered brain? 
Fortunate for the world would it be, if 
such were the fact. But can a fountain 
be pure when the sources from which 
alone it is supplied are loathsome from 
pollution? or sweet, when they are bur- 
dened with bitterness ? No more can the 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



145 



body-politic be sound without fidelity in 
the family circle, from whence all its mem- 
bers are supplied. Can the edifice be 
solid when the materials of which it is 
constructed are rotten and the foundation 
at fault ? Then neither can the social and 
civil fabric long stand while defective 
family training, or, rather, no training at 
all, pushes its members into places for 
which they have no qualifications, and 
while its very foundation is little other 
than domestic misrule and household an- 
archy. But from the illustration of fig- 
ures turn to the light of melancholy facts. 
Contemplate the throngs, amounting to 
millions, of children — boys, youth, and 
young men — in this nation, mostly un- 
taught in morality and unrestrained from 
sin, and, from the time they could walk 
and talk, have been turned loose upon 
the tide of time and circumstances, to 
take lessons in folly and crime of those 
farther advanced in the downward road 
to perdition than themselves. And who 

has not cause to weep over their fatal 
10 



146 



DISCOURSE OK 



proficiency? Go to the society of the 
sober and industrious ; they are not there. 
Go to the abodes of poverty, where the 
works of charity are to be achieved ; and 
they are not there. Go to the habitation 
of the sick, where sufferings are to be re- 
lieved ; but they are not there. Yisit the 
halls of literature and science ; they can 
not be found there. Turn to the place of 
moral and religious instruction — the house 
of God — there they can not be found. 
But go to the fashionable gathering, the 
scene of sinful amusements; go to the 
ball-room, the place of frolic and fun, and 
there many of them will be found, and 
among them some of the daughters. But 
where are the sons ? Ah, where are they ! 
Go to the bar-room, the billiard-table, the 
brothel; go to the horse-race, the gam- 
bling and grog-shops ; to the theaters and 
houses, nameless, in consequence of their 
corruption, and they are there! Yes, 
thousands of them are in these sinks of 
iniquity, and not a few of them with the 
knowledge, consent, or advice of their 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



147 



parents. Painful truth, that these thresh- 
olds of death are daily and nightly crowd- 
ed with the rising generation of this land, 
as though zealous for, and determined on, 
a deeper place in hell than heathens de- 
serve, and had thus early entered upon 
the desperate enterprise. But let parents 
remember that, as their children wear out 
in protracted sinning, or die suddenly by 
violence, in the rage and tumult of crime, 
God sees their blood in the parents' skirts ; 
they have virtually procured and indorsed 
the damnation of their own offspring by 
their habitual negligence to do all in their 
power to train the domestic charge for a 
place in heaven. 

Compelled to admit these appalling 
facts, do parents and others fancy that a 
remedy will be found and an increase of 
the evil prevented in the enactment and 
application of wise and wholesome laws ? 
Vain conceit! The multitude have the 
power, and virtually make their own laws . 
We magnify and praise it as the bright- 
est glory of the republic, " that the ma- 



148 



DISCOURSE ON 



jority rule." And, then, let it be re- 
membered, that when that majority is 
socially and politically depraved, the laws 
will be stamped with the same degener- 
acy that characterizes their source. And 
how many humiliating exemplifications 
of this are there in the history of the 
past and present, as fearfully admonitory 
and painfully ominous of what may occur 
in the future? Already, in some cases, 
is not such the prostitution of political 
power that the prodigal is elevated to 
office by the suffrages of the profligate ; 
the vicious clothed with legislative au- 
thority by the votes of the vile? Have 
not the matured judgment, experience, 
and virtue of age been rudely thrust 
aside, in many instances, and supersed- 
ed by the self-importance, recklessness, 
and inexperience of comparative youth? 
Hence, have not our legislative halls, 
looked to and venerated by the civilized 
world as the consecrated temples of the 
representative wisdom, talent, sober judg- 
ment, moral virtue, and dignified fidelity 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



149 



of the nation, been, in some instances, 
dismantled of their glory, their honor 
trampled in the dust, and, for the time 
being, tenanted with some who were lit- 
tle better than renegade politicians and 
bankrupt demagogues; who could blas- 
pheme the name of God in their seats, 
while clothed with the authority of sena- 
tors? And in more than one instance, 
have not those sacred halls been com- 
pelled to witness the horrible crime of 
homicide, in the willful murder of legis- 
lators in their seats, by members of the 
same body? And where is the American 
patriot or Christian, whose cheek is not 
crimsoned with the blush of shame and 
heaven-allowed indignation at the recol- 
lection that, more than once, the hall of 
our national legislation has presented a 
scene, bearing more the aspect of the 
lawless mob than the collected, law-abid- 
ing wisdom, virtue, and dignity of an 
enlightened nation's law-makers ? And 
what hangs this picture, already too pain- 
ful to behold, in gloom almost as dark 



150 



DISCOURSE ON 



as the pall of death is, that those deeds 
of moral treason against public trust and 
the people's honor are performed under 
circumstances, above all others, aside from 
the fear of God, most calculated to re- 
strain. The virtuous and good of man- 
kind, almost instinctively, turn to legisla- 
tive bodies for lessons of wisdom in the 
laws they enact, and models of virtue and 
fidelity, as motives to the multitude cheer- 
fully to obey their enactments and zeal- 
ously to emulate their example. Eleva- 
ted above the masses, they occupy an 
eminence — the honor conferred, the high 
trust confided, the authority with which 
they are invested — their whole position eli- 
cits attention, and even challenges public 
criticism. The public eye is upon them; 
with telegraphic velocity their sentiments, 
uttered in the legislative hall, fall on the 
nation's ear at home, while, by a thou- 
sand agencies, they are borne abroad to 
constitute a part of the daily news of 
other nations. The civilized world will 
make up the verdict, and every legislator 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



151 



must, from the necessity of his position, 
be an object of contempt for his de- 
linquency, or of honor for his fidelity. 
Hence, before men can reach such hights 
and depths of political depravity, they 
must set all restraint at defiance; must 
utterly disregard the opinions of the wise 
and virtuous abroad, and presume largely 
upon the degeneracy of their constituency 
at home. And in the latter, in too many 
instances, they have not " reckoned with- 
out their hosts." For have not the peo- 
ple, whom they represented, witnessed, 
with delight, their achievements for "the 
party," shouted over their victories, in- 
dorsed their deeds, and, at the polls, re- 
invested them with authority to repeat 
the drama of the state or nation's dis- 
grace? And such men, generally, are 
not apostates from the principles of their 
early habits, but are only acting out, on 
a larger scale, and exhibiting the ripe 
fruits of that anarchy in which they were 
allowed, in childhood and youth, by mis- 
erably-delmquent parents. And if this 



152 



DISCOURSE ON 



republic is ever clad in mourning at the 
sight of the blood of her profligate chil 
dren ; ah, if this republic overfalls — and 
fall it must, without a thorough reforma 
tion, of which the struggling heart can 
scarcely grasp a hope — the light of the 
final judgment will reveal the bitter, the 
withering, the ever-consuming fact, that 
American parents have virtually done 
the deed ! To them was the first training 
of every citizen committed. They were 
looked to for lessons on the path the in- 
experienced feet of those who were to 
constitute the body-politic were first to 
tread. Their teachings had the pre-emi- 
nence, and first fell upon their ears. The 
first idea that impressed the tender intel- 
lect of the miniature citizen was the off- 
spring of the parents' minds. They, by 
the special appointment of God, had the 
undisputed and indisputable control of 
the great mass of mind, in the persons of 
their children, that make up the citizen- 
ship of the world, and that, too, at the 
time of all others, this side eternity, most 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



153 



favorable for forming characters of loy- 
alty to sound civil government, and of 
obedience to God. But they have abused 
and virtually abandoned this Heaven-or- 
dained trust, with which angels might 
deem themselves honored ; and from this 
nursery of nations — the family circle — 
instead of sending out wise and virtuous 
citizens to honor the name they inherit, 
and the nation of which they constitute a 
part, and to be a blessing to mankind, 
they have sent out the lawless and de- 
praved, and, among them, a host of boys 
scarcely out of their swaddling-cloths, 
armed with their Bowie-knives, and with 
their pistols in their pockets, to be a curse 
to community and a disgrace to the spe- 
cies. As God has invested the parental 
relation with such control, and conferred 
on it such signal honors — has made it the 
repository of that power which can mold 
the mind, and give character to the nation 
in the persons and training of their chil- 
dren, he holds parents responsible in the 
degree commensurate w^ith the means ap- 



154 



DISCOURSE ON 



pointed, and the authority conferred. 
And, "unless the history of the past is a 
sheer slander of the race, universal ob- 
servation a mere illusion, and immutable 
justice can change, God will visit a be- 
trayal of this sacred trust with his con- 
suming judgments, equal, in magnitude, 
to the blessing abused. Consequently, if 
ever this nation be laid in ruins, and in- 
quisition shall be made for those who 
have moved in the premises, prepared the 
way, mocked the claims of God, and pro- 
voked the irrevocable doom, who will be 
found to be the most guilty agents ? 

Angels in heaven were never intrusted 
with such influence — devils in hell never 
were invested with the authority. Who, 
then, possessed the power? Ah, it is 
written before the throne, as one among 
the most fearful items in the reckonings 
of eternal retribution, parents were in- 
trusted with the agency — parents were 
invested with this power for the purposes 
of God's glory, and to be a blessing to 
the race of mankind. O, what confi- 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



155 



dence God has reposed in parents in con- 
fiding to thera the power to wield, to an 
unrevealed extent, the destinies of both 
worlds ! And eternity alone can disclose 
the magnitude and consequences of their 
crime and guilt, if they betray their trust. 

2. But the doctrine of consequences 
requires attention to this subject in a still 
more important aspect — the relation the 
household charge sustains to the Church 
of God. lie has crowned this subdivi- 
sion of human society with peculiar dig- 
nity, in making it alike the illustration 
and auxiliary of his own house — the 
Church. So specific was divine Wisdom 
in designating the domestic circle as a 
miniature community, sacred to himself, 
that, in the organization of the militant 
Church, he gave her the first visible form 
in the household of Abraham, by consti- 
tuting the father the priest of God, and 
the family the pastoral flock. In this ar- 
rangement God has honored the domestic 
charge, by making it the type of his uni- 
versal and spiritual Church, ordaining 



156 



DISCOURSE ON 



analogous points in the figure and the 
fact — the type and the antitype — that 
mutually illustrate each other. Christ is 
the glorious head of his universal Church, 
while the father — the head of the family — ■ 
is his subordinate, pastoral, and ministe- 
rial head in the household Church. While 
Abraham, by Divine appointment, as the 
head of his household, typified Christ as 
the great head of the spiritual Church, 
Christ, in his character and offices, illus- 
trates the duty of the father in the do- 
mestic charge. Christ is sublimely and 
divinely, in the appropriate and compre- 
hensive use of the term, a prophet, priest, 
and king in his own spiritual empire — the 
Church — and in submission to him, as 
agents and ministers of his mercy, heads 
of families are bound to perform, morally, 
similar functions in their own households. 
Sustaining relations and trusts that would 
honor angels, but of which angels have 
been denied, they are prophets — the 
Lord's prophets — divinely appointed to 
teach, in the light of his word, their own 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 15 Y 

house — the domestic Church — the will of 
God and the way to heaven. And for 
the same reasons, and by the same au- 
thority, and for the same purposes, they 
are priests ; not, indeed, to bring sacrifi- 
ces from the fields or flocks, to witness 
the flowing blood of bleeding victims, or 
w^ait, with trembling, at the smoking al- 
tar, for consuming fire, but, at the domes- 
tic altar of fervent devotion, through liv- 
ing faith in the atoning blood and pre- 
vailing mediation of the Son of God, to 
offer the " sacrifice of a broken heart and 
a contrite spirit" — u the sacrifice of ar- 
dent prayer and thanksgiving to God 55 for 
themselves, their children, the Church, 
and the world. And that their teachings, 
as prophets, may be efficient, and, as 
priests, their offerings accepted, God has 
invested them with authority to rale, 
that with wisdom, meekness, tenderness, 
love, long-suffering, and patience, but 
with fidelity, firmness, and perseverance 
in the strength and by the authority of 
God, they might govern and guide their 



158 



DISCOURSE ON 



immortal charge from sin and earth to 
God and heaven. 

Faithfulness in those relations and du- 
ties was the ground on which Abraham 
was honored with the enduring designa- 
tion of "the father of the faithful and the 
friend of God. 55 " For I know Abraham 
that he will command his children and his 
household after him, and they shall keep 
the way of the Lord to do justice and 
judgment; that the Lord may bring upon 
him that which he hath spoken of him," 
is the divine and unerasable record of his 
fidelity. And the distance they are re- 
moved, in the dispensation of God, from 
the days of Abraham, and the different 
circumstances under which they are call- 
ed to act, neither divest heads of families 
of the dignity of their relation, nor di- 
minish their obligations to perform its 
duties; but, on the contrary, both are 
magnified in exact proportion to the in- 
creased light and multiplied means of the 
dispensation in which they live. From 
which it must be seen, with a clearness 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



159 



against which men can not fully close 
their eyes, that God has not only, by na- 
ture, committed to parents the temporal 
interests of their offspring in time, but, 
by express revelation, constituted them, 
to a vastly-responsible extent, the guides 
and moral guardians of their spiritual 
well-being for eternity. 

The Divine declaration on the subject — 
too plain to be misunderstood — too imper- 
ative to be questioned or contemned with 
impunity; of universal application and 
perpetual obligation — is, "Parents, bring 
up your children in the nurture and ad- 
monition of the Lord." Tremendous 
trust! Fearfully-sublime investment of 
power in the hands of parents — power, 
not only to sow the seed of principles in 
the domestic circle that will ripen into 
peace, prosperity, and piety, or discord 
and degradation at home, and to mold 
the minds of, and give character to, coun- 
tries and kingdoms in time, but, also, to 
fix their impress upon the doom and des- 
tinies of man in eternity, in augmenting 



160 



DISCOURSE ON 



the anguish of the bottomless pit, or hight- 
ening the songs and joys of heaven. That 
there is no exaggeration in this, and that 
there is just reason to apprehend that 
this trust is fearfully abused, take a sur- 
vey of this so reputed Christian land, and 
number the altars erected and sacred to 
the service of God in the families of 
which the nation is composed, and they 
are but as a drop to the ocean — a frag- 
ment to the whole. And among those 
that have been reared to the honor of the 
Divine name, mark the moral desolation. 
Many of them are forsaken, while others, 
dilapidated and well-nigh fallen into ruin, 
and no longer the center of deep spiritual 
domestic devotion, remain only as monu- 
ments of past piety and witnesses of 
present apostasy, where but little of the 
" form of godliness" is observed, and still 
less of its "power" felt. These aside, 
look at the mass of families that make up 
community, and what are they doing for, 
or, rather, Avhat are they not doing against 
the interests of the Church of Christ and 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



161 



their own souls ? They have practically 
avowed their opposition, alike to the 
wishes of the Church, and the will of 
God. 

He has, by his providence, organized 
their household, ordained their relations, 
appointed them their duties, thrown round 
them, "as a wall of fire," the protections 
of his care. He has redeemed them from 
death by the blood of his own Son, and 
visited their hearts with the light of heav- 
en, by the influence of the Holy Spirit. 
He has invested parents with peculiar au- 
thority and dignity, and has rendered 
their offspring their unquestionable sub- 
ordinates, and constituted the household 
their indisputable empire. He has pro- 
vided for, and proffers to them Divine 
assistance to sustain, at every step in the 
path of domestic duty, and an "eternal 
weight of glory " as the reward of bound- 
3 ess grace. But "they have rebelled 
against him," and say, practically, to 
their families, " God is not worthy of our 

worship; we repudiate his claims, and 
1! 



162 



DISCOURSE OK 



disregard Ms authority." By refusing 
obedience to the will of God themselves, 
they are daily giving practical lessons of 
rebellion against his law to their children. 
In refusing to go to Christ for their own 
salvation, they are practically teaching 
their household to hate the crown of glory 
purchased by the blood of the cross. In 
a word, in neglecting to walk by faith in 
the path of life, the way to heaven them- 
selves, they are practically encouraging 
their household charge to pursue the broad 
way of sin and death. From the author- 
ity committed to parents, the appointed 
subordination of children, the promises 
of divine grace, and the assurances of the 
rewards of heaven, God has a right to 
expect, when he calls, to find the family 
prepared for their place in his Church — ■ 
the auxiliary of heaven, for the conver- 
sion of the inhabitants of earth, But in- 
stead of obeying the heavenly call, and 
crowding, with their families, into the 
fold of Christ, they are training them, 
morally, as wolves, that may help to divide 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



163 



and to devour the flock. While the warn- 
ings of the word of God, the invitations 
of the messengers of his mercy — his min- 
isters — the extended arms, the tears and 
supplications of his Church, are all calcu- 
lated and designed to affect their con- 
sciences, move their hearts, and win them 
to the cross of Christ, they are not only 
unmoved, but, with an ardor that would 
even honor the cause of heaven, rushing, 
with every step, with every breath, with 
every pulse, down to hell; fearfully hur- 
rying themselves and families upon the 
retributions of eternity. 

Should the inspecting angel, from the 
throne of heaven, visit this guilty globe, 
to make observations upon the interests 
of man and the operations of earth, and 
behold domestic irreligion swaying an 
almost undisputed scepter in multiplied 
thousands of families ; the millions of 
American children and youth, many of 
them untaught in the word of God, and 
untrained in the ways of religion, moving 
en masse] and bending their steps with 



164 



DISCOURSE ON 



alarming velocity in the broad way of sin 
and death; already having approached 
the trembling margin of the lake of un- 
quenchable fire, and soon, without refor- 
mation prevents, to take the overwhelming 
plunge, and inquire, with angelic earnest- 
ness, " Who have wrought this moral do- 
mestic desolation? — who have been fore- 
most in the calamities of these juvenile 
millions of this generation, that soon may 
terminate in death — spiritual death — the 
fearful second death — the hopeless hor- 
rors of an endless hell?" facts must an- 
swer — the Holy Spirit, who has been in- 
sulted by them a thousand times, in his 
visits to their stubborn hearts, will an- 
swer — Christ, who has redeemed them by 
his dying agonies upon the cross can but 
answer — God, who made them, and has 
preserved them alive, in the midst of the 
desolations of death, will answer: "Hear, 
O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the 
Lord hath spoken : I have nourished and 
brought up children, and they have re- 
belled against me." 



If— 7 ' 

DOMESTIC PIETY. 165 

But especially does this charge lie 
against delinquent parents, with all its 
force; for on them God has conferred 
honors that he has withheld from angels, 
in confiding to them the interests of earth 
and heaven, in the persons of their im- 
mortal offspring. But they have enthroned 
moral rebellion at the altar where heaven 
ordained peace, and has an unquestionable 
right to require obedience. But God will 
hold them to a reckoning, as fearful as 
their revolt is aggravated; as impartial 
and certain as He is just and immutable ; 
for whatever mysteries may mark the Di- 
vine administrations in the scheme of re- 
demption, or the operations of providence 
and grace, they will all be removed from 
the decisions of the final judgment ; and 
the reasons for the perdition of the lost 
will be written in letters of light, as un- 
mistakable as the majesty of God, and 
as unerasable as the immortality of man. 
And when all are called to "give account 
of themselves to God," who will dare to 
say that the account parents must render 



166 



DISCOURSE ON 



will not be fraught with consequences of 
the greatest magnitude ? There it will be 
seen that other relations were human, 
prudential, and temporary, and that their 
duties and. responsibilities were of a simi- 
lar character ; those of parents permanent, 
perpetual, and divine. Civil rulers fol- 
lowed those who had administered the 
affairs of state before them ; pastors suc- 
ceeded those who had previously fed their 
flocks ; but God has ordained that parents 
shall have no predecessors in their immor- 
tal charge. Before civil institutions can 
exert an influence upon their children, or 
even know that they have a being, parents 
are molding their minds for the future 
world. Before the minister of the Gospel 
gets there, parents are drawing moral 
lines upon their undying intellect, that 
tell on their doom in eternity. Before 
the Sabbath school teacher reaches their 
fireside, the parents have made impres- 
sions, as lasting as the being of their chil- 
dren. Before Christ is there, in his word, 
or their offspring can comprehend his lan- 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 167 

guage, " Suffer little cliildren to come unto 
me, and forbid them not," the parents 
have sown in the heart, seed, the fruits 
of which will be harvested in the endless 
future. And even before the Holy Spirit 
can impress their minds, as morally-ac- 
countable beings, parents are imbuing 
them with their own spirit, and they are 
daily taking lessons in the school of in- 
fantile observation, that may turn the 
scale of character for the untold realities 
of eternity. And for all this pre-eminence 
in their household, God holds them re- 
sponsible to the bar of judgment in the 
great day. Parents and children must 
then meet, and in the light of that day 
will be seen the fatal agency they have 
exerted in each other's endless perdition. 

Children may designate the parents, 
and exclaim, "There are my parents — 
the instruments of my existence. They 
gave me birth, but never taught me the 
deep depravity of my heart; but fre- 
quently flattered my pride. They never 
restrained my wicked passions; but fed 



168 



DISCOURSE ON 



the fire in my bosom, by the power of 
their own example. They never urged 
me to the duty of prayer ; but their own 
practice was a standing lesson of irrelig- 
ion. They rarely ever led me to the 
house of God; but their own footsteps 
conducted me to the theater, the ball-room, 
and in the broad way to hell. They made 
the first impressions on my tender mind ; 
and in minority I followed their example, 
by the force of the subordination of child- 
hood, till rebellion against God had 
usurped my whole heart; and in riper 
years, encouraged by the same example, 
I chose not to change my course, till sud- 
denly arrested by death, and hurried, 
in the horror of despair, from abused 
mercies and neglected means, to the 
terrors of hell ; and now, at the flaming 
bar of eternal judgment, covered with 
infamy as a thick cloud, and every power 
of my immortal nature filled with the un- 
utterable and inextinguishable anguish, 
of conscious guilt and merited perdition, 
I point to the parents that gave me being 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



169 



as the principal agents of my endless woe, 
and await the doom of, 'Depart, ye 
cursed, into everlasting fire,' where eter- 
nity, only, can make up the record of the 
power of parental example and influence 
in turning the scale of their household, 
for the degradation and miseries of hell, 
or the honors and glories of heaven F Par- 
ents, "prepare to meet your God" and 
your immortal offspring at the bar of final 
judgment, and remember, with trembling, 
that "the curse of the Lord is in the 
house of the wicked!" 

3. But we turn now from the awful 
consequences of delinquencies, to contem- 
plate this subject, for a few minutes, in 
another aspect — the glorious effects on the 
parents, the children, the Church, and the 
world, of faithfxilness in domestic duties. 
This work demands consistency. It can 
never be accomplished by that sickly 
sanctity of those that can weep over the 
woes and wickedness of men abroad, but 
are blind to the depravity, pride, and neg- 
lect of God at home ; that are ardent in 



170 



DISCOURSE ON 



professions of zeal for the conversion of 
the heathen, but feel little or no concern 
that their own household are going down 
to perdition unconverted ; that rejoice in 
accessions to the Church, and profess great 
concern for her prosperity, but have few 
or no tears to shed that their own families 
are growing up in habitual hostility to the 
Church and to God. If such would pro- 
mote the real interest of the Church, they 
must begin the work at home; if they 
would see the disorders and wickedness 
of men diminished, they must, in the 
strength of sovereign grace, seek their 
destruction in their own house; if they 
would see the heathen, the world, con- 
verted to God, they must, with all the 
ardor that the love of bone of their bone, 
flesh of their flesh, and soul of their soul 
can inspire — all the earnestness that the 
fear of their families going down to hell, 
and the desire that they may at last sing 
in heaven can awaken — with all the fervor 
that the love of God, and an invincible 
faith in the atonement and mediation of 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



171 



Jesus Christ can prompt, seek that their 
own undying household may be the first 
trophies of that boundless, blood-bought, 
world-converting grace. These godly pur- 
poses, firmly fixed in the heart, and re- 
duced to daily practice in life, will organ- 
ize each household, as the divinely-ap- 
pointed and heaven-approved auxiliary 
of the Church of God, for the moral con- 
quest of the world. It will withdraw the 
millions of the rising generation from the 
ranks of the enemies of the cross of Christ 
in a day, and hurl confusion into the cen- 
ter of all the dark, diabolical designs, and 
spread terror and dismay throughout the 
entire, usurped territories of the foe. It 
will procure from the heavenly throne, in 
the richest effusions, the blessings and 
grace promised : " They that seek me early 
shall find me," and, "I will honor them 
that honor me." God, the boundless 
• source of all human blessedness, will be- 
hold in every house an altar raised to his 
honor, and will hear the lisping, but earn- 
est voice of childhood and youth, min- 



372 



DISCOURSE ON 



gling with that of hoary age, in the cele- 
bration of his own praise ; well pleased 
with the offering, will pour the benedic- 
tions of heaven upon the household ; and 
the Son, the Prince of peace, will dwell 
there, by the works and witness of the 
Holy Spirit in their humble and obedient 
hearts. Parents will then rear their chil- 
dren for, and give them with delight to, 
the Church ; the Church, walking in " the 
comfort," and working by the strength 
" of the Holy Spirit," will become, indeed, 
the city upon an eminence, as God's 
agent — the light of the world. 

The Church of Christ, in all her officers, 
and in every department, reanointed, re- 
baptized with the unction from heaven, 
will clearly see, and fully appreciate, her 
appropriate work upon earth — the glory 
of God in the salvation of man. All her 
means will be consecrated to God, and 
the footsteps of her missionaries will be 
seen in speedy pursuit of the. most hope- 
less wanderers of our race, and their 
voices heard, in proffering the salvation 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



173 



of the cross in every country, clime, and 
kingdom where men have revolted from 
God. Her mandate will send the light 
of revelation — the Bible — to the darkest 
abodes of human w T retchedness this side 
the tomb, to illumine the pathway from 
the prison of sin and gloom of earth, to 
the liberty of God's children and the glo- 
ries of heaven. Godly men will consti- 
tute the body-politic; and men of God 
will guide the affairs of state. The spirit 
of Christ in his Church, will render a 
verdict of eternal infamy against the de- 
mon of war, and despots, humbled by 
divine grace, will bow, as beggars, at the 
cross of Jesus Christ for salvation, or by 
divine justice be consumed from the earth 
they pollute. The bonds of oppression 
will be broken, by the true spirit of the 
King of kings reigning in his Church, from 
the emaciated limbs of every member of 
the family of man, without respect to 
color or to caste; and the angels from 
heaven w T ill resume the song and shouts 
of Bethlehem, " Glory to God in the high- 



174 



DISCOURSE ON 



est, and on earth peace, good-will to 
men;" while the inhabitants of earth, 
brought back to their allegiance to God, 
will respond, from the equator to the 
poles, and the hemispheres, blending in 
one unbroken brotherhood, will re-echo 
the shout, " Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace, good- will to men;" 
"for the kingdoms of this wxxrlcl have be- 
come the kingdoms of our God and of 
his Christ." Amen. 

Then may men and angels exclaim, " O, 
what hath God wrought for the fallen race 
of man !" Then may be seen in all its 
clearness the honor he has conferred on 
the domestic relations, and the powerful 
agency of parents, under God, in the sal- 
vation of their children, and the conver- 
sion of the nations of the earth ; an honor 
and an agency producing and accom- 
panied by such refined enjoyments as, in 
no ordinary sense, to compensate, even in 
this world, for the vast cares, toils, and 
responsibilities involved in this holy rela- 
tion. Happy families of earth, when thus 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



175 



solemnly consecrated to God ; and peace- 
ful and happy earth, when all its families 
are employed in serving him ! And that 
our faith may be perfected in regard to 
these glorious results, look at this subject 
again. Contemplate the character and 
spirit of the families that compose the 
Church, and meditate the moral conquest 
of the world. Parents and children — the 
whole family, deeply conscious that "they 
are not their own, but that they are bought 
by the blood of J esus Christ," become, of 
choice, by entire self-devotion, " living 
sacrifices to God" and his holy cause. 
He, by the witness and influence of the 
Holy Spirit, dwells in their hearts, and 
"the life they live in the flesh, is by the 
faith of the Son of God." Perfect resig- 
nation to the Divine will in all things is 
an element of their Christian being ; and 
they recognize a Father's hand from heav- 
en, in all the operations of grace, and ad- 
ministrations of Providence on earth. 
They are prepared, by heavenly grace, 
for every thing which God allots to them 



176 



DISCOURSE ON 



in their earthly pilgrimage. They rejoice 
in patiently suffering, as well as diligently 
performing the whole will of their Father 
in heaven. They rejoice in what he with- 
holds, as well as what he gives ; in what 
he withdraws, as well as that which he 
leaves. Their joy is full in knowing that 
they are glorifying God, in all the ways 
which he may appoint. They are pre- 
pared, through the riches of boundless 
grace in Jesus Christ, to do or suffer — to 
live or die ; conscious, through the power 
of living faith, that the bliss enjoyed by 
the household on earth, is but a foretaste 
of the glory that awaits the family in 
heaven. The vicissitudes of time may 
shake all things that are earthly ; but the 
light of faith points them to their abiding 
home on high, and holy hope binds them 
to the throne. Falling friends and fellow- 
beings, on the right hand and on the left, 
may admonish them of their own mor- 
tality; but they remember the victories 
of the cross. Death may enter their hab- 
itation — a beloved member may fall uncfer 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



177 



his stroke here, another may fall yonder, 
till the children are orphans, the parents 
childless, the mother a widow, the father 
companionless ; or the household broken 
up, and the dust of its members laid low 
in the tomb ; but at each onset of the foe, 
and as his victim falls, Christ, the con- 
queror of death, proclaims, "I am the 
resurrection and the life ; and he that be- 
lieveth in me, though he were dead, yet 
shall he live again," 

The survivors hearken, and with uncom- 
plaining submission, and all the confi- 
dence of triumphant faith, till the last one 
is gathered home to God, respond, "The 
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; 
and blessed be the name of the Lord !" 
" All things shall work together for good, 
to them that love God." To them, Death 
has lost his sting, and the tomb its terrors. 
They look upon the one as a conquered 
foe, and into the other as the end of tears 
and toil, hallowed by the Son of God, and 
sacred to the repose of the mortal remains 

of his saints, till raised and renewed in 
12 



178 



DISCOURSE ON 



liis own image, and clothed with his own 
immortality and eternal glory. They con- 
template the extinction of mortal life, as 
but a release from the perils of probation, 
a transmission to the paradise of God, 
and the renewal of their hope in the tri- 
umphs of the cross, and the final glories 
of the resurrection. And when called to 
their home in the skies, and filled with 
ecstasies divine, and abounding in heav- 
enly bliss, to which earth is an utter stran- 
ger, if not themselves ministering spirits, 
and active agents in the grand achieve- 
ments, they may behold the Church, bap- 
tized from the throne of heaven, with an 
enlightened, living zeal, and filled with 
an unconquerable energy of character, 
and the power of perfect faith, that would 
deem themselves dishonored in the pur- 
suit of an object less than the universal 
promulgation of the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ, fully accomplishing the purposes 
of her divine organization, and speedily 
redeeming the sublime pledge implied in 
her very existence on earth— the convex 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



179 



sion of the fallen and ruined world to 
God. 

The Church, made up of such godly 
households, by the divinity of her teach- 
ings and majesty of her example, rolls 
back the dark clouds of ignorance and 
sin, which, for ages, hung around the na- 
tions of the earth as the habiliments of 
moral death, and pours her light upon 
the world, and points every wanderer to 
the cross and to the crown. Her fervent 
prayers and invincible faith "move the 
arm that moves the world and her last 
conquest, for the subjugation of the world 
to God, is achieved in the tender of the 
salvation of the Gospel — the purchase of 
the blood of the Son of God — to every 
member of our apostate and ruined race. 
a For this Gospel of the kingdom shall 
be preached to all the world for a witness 
unto all nations, and then shall the end 
come." Then, the sublime purposes of an 
infinitely wise and perfect Providence 
accomplished, the Church, bright in the 
moral image of the infinite Savior, her 



180 



DISCOURSE ON 



agency on earth consummated, waits, in 
hope, with reverence and with raptures, 
for the glorious rewards of grace in 
heaven. The world, ripe for judgment, 
and time, trembling as a drop ready to 
be absorbed in the boundless ocean of 
unending duration, all, all pause, pene- 
trated with the grandeur of the changes 
wrought in the past, as sublimely omin- 
ous of the revolutions soon to be revealed 
in the future, and wait the mandate of 
the throne in heaven to terminate the pro- 
bation of man upon earth — close forever 
the scenes of time, and transmit the race 
to all the realities of eternity. It is done ! 
The seat of saving mercy and availing 
mediation is succeeded by the throne of 
universal judgment and eternal retribu- 
tion. The once slaughtered but risen, 
and, for ages, the interceding Savior now, 
in risen, glorified human nature, assumes 
his regal character and office of infinite 
judge, issues that mandate, and the arch- 
angel, honored with the trust, pours the 
thunders of the world-awaking trump of 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



181 



final judgment upon all the intelligences 
of God's universe. Its resistless tones, 
by the authority of Omnipotence, from 
the highest heavens, fill all the sepulchral 
regions of the lowest earth, where, for 
protracted ages, have been scattered the 
dust of the dead, penetrates the dull ear 
of death, and bids universal humanity into 
active being — into undying life. There 
the untold millions of antiquity — of all 
time — of the entire race — divested of all 
assumed, acquired, artificial, or unreal 
distinctions, must appear in their own in- 
trinsic character at the inflexible bar of 
impartial and irrevocable retribution. In- 
stinct with the deathless consciousness 
of their real character, as by the immu- 
table laws of moral gravitation, peculiar 
to eternity, all tend to their appropriate 
place on the right hand or the left of their 
almighty Judge. 

The last judgment is set. Families 
are there ; the assembled universe of man- 
kind are there; and the very being of 
every member is traced to the domestic 



182 



DISCOURSE ON 



relations. The books are opened, and the 
undying vigor of every man's conscience 
is, in reference to his own case, a perfect 
duplicate of the record. Whole families, 
and parts of families, covered with con- 
fusion, and self-condemned, stand on the 
left hand, and behold, with a clearness as 
awful as the throne before which they are 
judged is inflexible, the record of their 
rebellion on earth, and the reasons found- 
ed in eternal justice of their hopeless 
perdition in hell. But on the right hand 
stand the unnumbered hosts of the saints 
of God, including whole families, and the 
pious members of all others, who recog- 
nize and hail each other as belonging 
to and constituting the brotherhood of 
heaven. They, too, see, with the same 
clearness and light, their own character 
and destiny, and the demonstrations of 
God's wonderful grace. All behold, with 
unobscured perspicuity, that God, in infi- 
nite love, provided salvation for every 
member of the fallen family, and that 
the rejection of that salvation, by the 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



183 



wicked, is the meritorious cause of their 
endless perdition; and that its accept- 
ance, by the pious, is the gracious condi- 
tion of their final glory. Darkness no 
longer hangs around the dispensations of 
God, or his dealings with men. The 
clouds of mist or mystery that shrouded 
the actions of mankind on earth, are con- 
sumed by the light of heaven. The spec- 
ulations and errors, in reference to char- 
acter, cherished in time, are swept from 
the universe by the blaze of eternity. 
The guilty lips of skepticism and cavil- 
ing are eternally sealed by an indelible 
consciousness of self-condemnation. The 
destinies of the changeless future hang 
upon the lips of the infinite Judge. One 
word — holy or unholy — will inscribe the 
true character of all on the records of the 
throne, and one brief sentence — " Come, ye 
Messed" or, "Depart, ye cursed" — will fix 
their doom for eternity. 

A moment will seal the condition of 
the race of man. Awful moment! The 
decision of the judgment-throne falls upon 



184: 



DISCOURSE ON 



the ears and hearts of the unholy with a 
terror deep as the agonies of " the second 
death:" "Depart, ye cursed," and "these 
shall go away into everlasting punish- 
ment but to the holy, " Come, ye bless- 
ed, 55 and " the righteous shall rise into life 
eternal, 55 and realize their utmost hopes 
in "an eternal weight of glory 55 and all 
the raptures of heaven. And so reful- 
gent, resistless, awfully sublime, and over- 
whelming will be the evidences of real 
character, that the intelligent universe 
will see, feel, and be compelled to admit, 
that in the irrevocable sentence that con- 
signs sinners to hell and exalts saints to 
heaven, every perfection of the infinite 
Godhead is vindicated, justified, and eter- 
nally honored and glorified. 

Stupendous scene, and transcendent 
thought! The perfection of terror and 
glory — the result of " eternal judgment; 55 
heaven filled with raptures, and hell with 
horrors; families crowned with glory, 
and families doomed to perdition; parts 
of families in the fellowship of heaven, 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



185 



and others in the companionship of hell ! 
To the one, the cross, the cares, the con- 
flicts, the toils, tears, and duties of earth 
are exchanged for the crown, the king- 
dom, and undying honors of the Church 
on high. To the other, the gayety, the 
ungodliness, pleasures, and disobedience 
of time are succeeded by the tears, the 
anguish, and wailings of the guilty lost in 
eternity. But we forbear to pursue the 
dreadful thought, and turn from the dead, 
the risen, the judged, condemned, and 
lost, and appeal again to the living. 

The living — the parents, whose rela- 
tions and duties lie at the foundations of 
society, and are the hope of earth and 
heaven ! Through the astonishing forbear- 
ance and mercy of God you still live. 
You are not yet numbered with the dead, 
nor consigned to perdition. You are not 
yet before the bar of judgment, to read 
and meet the result of your delinquen- 
cies without the benefit of a mediator. 
Heaven is yet propitious ; God still waits 
to be gracious ; Christ is still your advo- 



186 



DISCOUKSE ON 



cate before the throne; the Holy Spirit 
yet visits your heart; conscience urges 
yon to duty, and yon may yet be saved in 
heaven, with all your household. Chil- 
dren, dear children, none have a deeper 
interest in this subject than you have. 
Your obligations to obey your parents, 
"in the Lord," are as imperative as their 
duty to instruct and restrain you is un- 
questionable and plain. Consider the re- 
sponsibilities God has laid upon your par- 
ents, and the Church, in your behalf, and 
the inexpressible interest that Heaven 
takes for your well-being in this and the 
future world. O, think of the solemn fact, 
that every act of unkindness to them, or 
disobedience to their proper instructions, 
will be marked with the double guilt of 
sinning against your parents and against 
God; and, unless repented of and forsa- 
ken, will ruin your immortal souls forever. 

But if you are bent on being wicked, 
you can resist all these influences — the 
mercies of God, the mediation of Christ, 
the strivings of the Spirit; you may throw 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



187 



off the restraints and disregard the in- 
structions and example of pious parents ; 
you may wade through their tears, en- 
treaties, and prayers, and bring their 
"gray hairs in sorrow to the grave; 5 ' you 
may contemn the teachings of the min- 
isters of Christ, and despise the prayers 
of his Church ; but know, for all this, 
u G-od will bring you into judgment." 
And when you are separated from the 
honorable, the virtuous, and the pious; 
when separated from kind and godly 
parents forever; and when driven from 
the presence of Jesus Christ, your final 
judge, whom you would not own and 
serve as a Savior, you may see, from the 
prison of endless sorrow, that the first 
step you took in the way to hell, was that 
of ingratitude and disobedience to kind 
and pious parents. O, children, stop and 
think! Hasten to Christ and confess all 
your sins, and resolve, in his name and 
strength, that, from this time hence, you 
will humbly and faithfully serve God 
with your parents. 



188 



DISCOURSE ON 



O, parents and children — the whole fam- 
ily — though we may never have an ac- 
quaintance on earth, other than is formed 
through the medium of this unpretending 
and plain discourse, suffer one who feels 
a deep and insuppressible interest for 
your salvation, to plead with you in the 
name of the crucified Savior, to conse- 
crate yourselves to his service without a 
moment's delay. Death holds his dark 
scepter over your defenseless heads, and 
the grave extends its arms to gather you 
quickly among the dead. Eternity is 
just before you, and "hell moves from 
beneath to meet you at your coming." 

As you deprecate the horrors of a 
death-bed in despair; as you tremble at 
the thought of entering the dark " valley 
of the shadow of death " without a friend ; 
as the apprehensions of a guilty family 
meeting at the bar of God are overwhelm- 
ing ; as you would shrink from the lam- 
entations of the lost, the degradations of 
the damned, the undying worm of con- 
scious guilt, and the quenchless fires of 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



189 



the " second death," fly, O, fly for your 
lives to the cross, the blood of atonement, 
and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

We plead with you, by the consolations 
of religion ; its hallowed influences in the 
domestic circle; the power of God and 
the comforts of his love in your hearts in 
a dying hour ; the glories of the resurrec- 
tion mom ; the approbation of the infinite 
Judge ; the honors of the fadeless crown, 
and the endless glories of heaven — we 
urge you, by all your desires for happiness 
in this and the future world ; by all your 
desires to meet in heaven, and enjoy the 
fellowship of angels, and the smiles of 
God forever — by all these motives we im- 
plore you, as a family, to consecrate your- 
selves wholly to the service of God. We 
plead with you, by all that God has done 
for you, in giving you being and preserv- 
ing you alive in the midst of the desola- 
tions of death ; by his infinite love in the 
gift of his own Son for your redemption ; 
by the infinite condescension of Jesus 
Christ, in " bearing your sins in his own 



190 



DISCOURSE ON 



body on the bloody cross ; by the infinite 
compassion and patience of the Holy 
Spirit in moving your consciences and 
melting your hearts ; by all that is of real 
interest on earth, in time, and all the 
honors and glories of heaven, through 
eternity ; by all the danger you are in of 
at last losing your immortal souls, and 
going down to enhance the horrors of an 
endless hell ; by all these perils, promises, 
and prospects, we earnestly beseech you 
now, in the strength of almighty grace, 
to settle the purpose in your hearts to 
serve the Lord as an entirely consecrated 
house. 

God's eyes are upon you; the Holy 
Spirit is ready to help your infirmities; 
divine grace is proffered for your aid ; and 
before you finish this page, if you have 
never done it before, decide the principle ; 
let it be the invincible decision of your 
will; let it be inscribed indelibly upon 
your heart ; let it be attested by an hon- 
est conscience; let it be understood in 
the family; let it become the sovereign 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 



191 



rule of the household, that the registering 
angel may bear the intelligence above, 
and make the record before the throne, 
" As for me and my house, we will serve 
the Lord." And may God strengthen 
your purpose ; renew you in the glorious 
image of Christ; sustain you in all the 
duties of life ; comfort you in the hour of 
death, and conduct you in triumph, 
through faith in Jesus Christ, to heaven ! 



THE END. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-21 1 1 



